Hyderabad: In yet another twist to TRS MLAs poaching case, the High Court of Telangana on Saturday remanded the three accused to custody and ordered them to surrender before the investigating police officials for further proceedings. The court's latest order was given after hearing a plea made by the Cyberabad police, two days after the judge for the anti-corruption bureau cases rejected the remand of the accused on technical grounds.
The High Court ordered the three accused - Ramachandra Bharati aka Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy - to surrender before Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra immediately. If they failed to do so, the court ordered for arresting them and then produce them before the ACB cases court before sending them to remand.
Only on Thursday, the ACB court rejected the remand of three accused, saying that the charges would not attract sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 since no money has been seized. Based on a complaint by ruling TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, the poaching case was booked against the three accused.
On the other hand, a High Court bench led by Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy stayed further investigation in the MLAs poaching case till November 4. The order was issued after hearing a plea made by BJP State General Secretary G. Premender Reddy. The petitioner demanded handing over of the MLAs poaching case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Also Read:Telangana: Second audio clip talks about 'collapse of Government' - TRS MLAs poaching case
Meanwhile, audio clips purportedly relating to the MLAs inducement case surfaced. They contained a conversation between the three accused, one of whom talked about luring more MLAs and also 'collapse of Government within a month'. With this, the alleged poaching bid for 4 MLAs of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) took an unexpected twist.
While there is mention of a key leader's name in the first audio, the second one touched many issues including money given to MLAs who changed parties and different agencies to ensure that no one gets involved. The second audio revolved entirely around financial transactions and contained voices of the voices of the accused. How many people will come along with Rohit Reddy? How much to give? They talked about vitamin indirectly referring to bribe.
The audio conversation revealed a confidence among the accused that the government will surely fall if these MLAs come. Names of several MLAs were discussed. But these audios came to light unofficially. Neither the accused nor the police responded to this.
As per this audio, one of the accused, Ramachandra, said: "If Rohit resigns from the party, the government will fall within a month. Let's look at the former in the second round as you said. We are also operating in Delhi. There are also 43 people there. They also resign from membership."
The BJP also approached the Enforcement Directorate and the Election Commission seeking a probe, while TV channels aired an alleged telephonic conversation between the complainant and the accused. BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao submitted a representation to the Enforcement Directorate in Hyderabad to investigate into the matter. The BJP has already announced that it would move the court seeking a high-level investigation into the issue to bring out the truth over the ruling TRS' allegations that the BJP tried to poach some of its MLAs.
