Hyderabad: In more trouble for Telugu Desam Party MLA Revanth Reddy, who was caught red-handed offering bribe, has been sent to 14 days judicial custody on Monday. The move came the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau caught him red-handed offering a bribe to an independent MLA Elvis Stephenson.
Reddy offered Stephenson a bribe of Rs 5 crore for his seat in today's Member of the Legislative Council elections.
Revanth Reddy was heard saying, "I'll give you Rs 50 lakh now and Rs 4.5 crore tomorrow. My person will come and hand you Rs 4.5 crore. If anything happens here, we'll nominate you in Andhra Pradesh."
Stephenson informed the Anti-Corruption Bureau and they set up a sting operation where they nabbed Reddy with Rs 50 lakh. Reddy has been allowed to cast his vote.
The TDP has cried foul and accused the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi government of conspiracy.
Hitting out at the TRS government, TDP MLA CM Ramesh said, "This is nothing short of a conspiracy. He was just going home when he was taken by the police. TRS doesn't have the numbers, to prevent voting, so they're doing this."
The TDP MLA and his aide had gone to the residence of Stephenson at Lalaguda in Secunderabad to hand over the cash when the ACB sleuths caught them offering the bribe, he said.
"After the voting, the remaining Rs 4.5 crore were to be paid," the officer said.
ACB Director General AK Khan said, "Reddy has been taken into custody along with Uday S and Sebastian Harry. Stephenson had lodged a complaint with ACB stating that he was offered the bribe in connection with the MLC election."
"After a preliminary probe, a case was registered today and MLA Reddy and two others were caught while handing over the cash based on the evidence. They were taken into custody and being interrogated. As per law, questioning process is on and an FIR has been registered under section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC," he said.
"The cash of Rs 50 lakh has been recovered and as per preliminary probe it was an advance amount as part of the bribe deal. We have audio-visual evidence regarding the alleged deal. It is a cognisable and non-bailable offence. Efforts are on to nab another accused M Jerusalem," Khan said.
Election to the Telangana Legislative Council under MLAs' quota from the Assembly constituency is scheduled for Monday to fill six vacancies.
(With additional information from PTI)
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