ACB grills TDP lawmaker in cash-for-vote scam

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana on Thursday grilled Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator Sandra Venkata Veeraiah in the cash-for-vote case.

The ACB officials questioned the lawmaker at ACB headquarters in Banjara Hills here to elicit more information about the role he played in the scam.

The investigating agency believes Veeraiah played a key role in t rying to bribe the nominated member of the state assembly. It had already informed the court that the TDP leader spoke to one of the accused in the case 32 times over mobile phone. The officials were trying to identify 'Janardhan', the name repeatedly taken by him during the conversation.

A city court on Wednesday sent Veeraiah to the ACB's custody for two days. The ACB took him into custody from Cherlapally Jail on Thursday morning. The questioning will continue till 5.30 p.m. and will resume on Friday at 9 a.m.

Meanwhile, the court adjourned to July 12 the hearing on the MLA's bail petition.

The ACB arrested the lawmaker on Monday after questioning him for seven hours. He was included as the fifth accused in the case. It conveyed to the court that there is a strong evidence of his involvement.

The court on Tuesday sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.

Veeraiah, who represents the Sattupalli assembly constituency in Khammam district of Telangana, is the second TDP legislator to be arrested in the case.

TDP legislator Revanth Reddy was arrested by the ACB on May 31 while he was offering Rs.50 lakh as a bribe to nominated member Elvis Stephenson reportedly to induce him to vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in the state council polls.

The ACB, which laid a trap on a complaint by Stephenson, also arrested two aides of Revanth Reddy.

All the three were granted bail by the Hyderabad High Court last week.