Cash-for-vote case: Court grants bail to TDP legislator

A court here on Tuesday granted bail to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator Sandra Venkata Veeraiah in the cash-for-vote case.

The court gave him conditional bail on a personal bond of Rs.2 lakh. He was also directed not to leave his constituency - Sattupalli in Telangana's Khammam district.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana had last week arrested him after day-long questioning.

The court had sent him to judicial custody for 14 days after ACB made him fifth accused in the case relating to bribing of legislators in the election to the Telangana legislative council. He was also remanded to two day custody of the ACB.

The ACB officials grilled him for two days to gather more information about his role and the involvement of others in the scam.

The investigating agency believes Veeraiah played key role in bribing the nominated legislator Elvis Stephenson.

Veeraiah was the second TDP legislator to be arrested in the case.

TDP legislator Revanth Reddy and two others were arrested by the ACB on May 31 while they were offering Rs.50 lakh as a bribe to Stephenson reportedly to induce him to vote for the TDP-BJP candidate.

All the three were granted bail by the Hyderabad High Court early this month.