Telangana CM Revanth directly involved in graft, says ED ahead of court appearance
Revanth, named as accused number 1 in the charge sheet filed under PMLA, was “evasive” during his questioning in 2019, ED officials said.
The Enforcement Directorate has evidence to establish that Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy was “directly involved” in money laundering and use of proceeds of crime worth ₹50 lakh, officials said even as the Congress is expected to appear before a Hyderabad court on Wednesday in connection with the 2015 “cash-for-vote” case.
Revanth, named as accused number 1 in the charge sheet filed under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), was “evasive” during his questioning in 2019, ED officials said citing probe details and court documents.
The case dates back to 2015, when ahead of the June 1 Telangana legislative council elections, Revanth was caught paying ₹50 lakh to MLA Elvis Stephenson for voting in favour of Telugu Desam Party candidate Vem Narender Reddy. Revanth was a TDP MLA at the time.
ALSO READ- Canada’s leadership says working with Five Eyes partners on Nijjar investigation
In 2018, ED launched a probe into the matter and recorded statements of Elvis Stephenson, who was also the complainant in the matter, and others. The same year, Revanth joined the Congress. He was appointed the chief minister in December 2023, when Congress came to power in Telangana by winning 65 of the 119 assembly seats.
The federal agency filed a charge sheet in the matter on July 25, 2021, naming Reddy as prime accused along with four others.
“In his statement recorded under Section 50 of PMLA, Mathaiah Jerusalem (one of the accused) confirmed that Revanth Reddy told him to meet Elvis Stephenson and convince him to cast his vote in cross voting in favour of Vem Narender Reddy. He also claimed that Revanth Reddy also told him that if Elvis Stephenson cast his vote in favour of TDP MLC, he would be paid an amount of ₹5 Crore and if Elvis Stephenson abstained from voting, he would be paid ₹3 crores along with a flight ticket for him to visit Jerusalem,” said an ED officer, who didn’t want to be named.
ALSO READ- Baba Siddique's shooters used Instagram, Snapchat to communicate, say police
The financial crimes probe agency questioned Revanth in February 2019. “Reddy made a false deposition that while he was discussing certain issues with Rudra Uday Simha (an aide of Reddy), they were forcibly taken away by some police personnel to a nearby apartment. The gunmen of Revanth Reddy, in their statements, however, did not report occurrence of any such incident with Revanth Reddy,” said the officer cited above.
A second officer said that Reddy was shown the video recording of the event wherein he was clearly seen handling the money and giving it to Elvis Stephenson. “However, he was evasive in his reply and stated that ‘one person seems like me’,” said the second officer, who also asked not to be named.
ALSO READ- 'Developed India will be free from terrorism, drugs by 2047': Amit Shah
“PMLA investigation established that Revanth Reddy was directly involved in the scheduled offence and also the offence of money laundering as defined under Section 3 which is punishable under section 4 of PMLA by actively indulging in the acquisition and use of the proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹50 lakhs which were nothing but the bribe amount paid to the complainant to induce him to vote in favour of a particular candidate and thereby committed the offence of money laundering,” the second officer added.
The case was listed for framing of charges on September 24 this year. The court directed all the accused including Revanth to be present in the court on October 16 for consideration of charges.