The Telangana police caught three people belonging to the BJP a couple of days ago, who were allegedly trying to bribe and buy four TRS MLAs. The ACB special court at Nampally ordered the release of the three accused today. Following this, the Cyberabad police moved the High Court, seeking the remand of the accused.
The ACB court rejected the remand petition of the Cuberabad police, seeking judicial remand for them. The three accused include Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma of Delhi, Nanda Kumar of Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy of Tirupati. The ACB court judge said that the three were released as there was no evidence for any crime, and since the Prevention of Corruption Act does not apply to the case, since the police failed to show any evidence about the seizure of money from them.
The police issued notices to the accused on Friday, asking them to appear before the police for questioning within 24 hours failing which action would be taken against them. They also moved the HC at the same time, on the grounds that the lower court did not follow rules before ordering the release of the accused. The petition is expected to come up for hearing in the afternoon.
The police registered a case against the accused under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 171-B (bribery) read with 171-E (punishment of bribery), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and section 8 of Prevention of the Corruption Act.
The accused allegedly offered an amount of Rs. 100 Crores and also offered to give Central government civil contract works and other high Central government positions for monetary benefits to the TRS MLAs, in order to lure them to the BJP. Evidence of these allegations is yet to be produced.