Cash for vote case: T'gana ACB files preliminary charge sheet

Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) probing the cash-for-vote case involving TDP MLA A Revanth Reddy, today filed a preliminary charge sheet against Reddy and three others in a local court.
The charge sheet was filed against Revanth Reddy, Bishop Sebastian Harry, Reddy's aides Uday Simha and M Jerusalem under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.
The charge sheet has cited 39 witnesses and several documents.
"We are continuing with the investigation...We will file one more charge sheet against another TDP MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and others," ACB Additional Superintendent of Police M Malla Reddy said.

In May, Telangana nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson had lodged a complaint with ACB alleging that he was offered Rs 5 crore by Revanth Reddy to vote in favour of a Telugu Desam MLC nominee in Telangana Legislative Council polls held on June 1.
Stephenson represents Anglo-Indian community in Telangana Legislative Assembly.

A case was subsequently registered and on May 31, ACB arrested TDP's Deputy Leader in the Telangana Assembly Revanth Reddy along with Sebastian and Simha here while they were allegedly handing over an advance of Rs 50 lakh to Stephenson.
All the three are currently on bail while M Jerusalem had approached the high court and got a stay over his arrest.

ACB had then said it had collected clinching evidence in the form of audio/video recordings and recovered an advance amount of Rs 50 lakhs.
Electronic devices, including some phones containing few audio clips and video footage, besides CPU among others relating to the cash-for-vote case that were seized during course of investigation were submitted before a special court for ACB cases and later sent to forensic science laboratory (FSL) to determine their authenticity.
"FSL after verifying the transcripts submitted a report to the court and ACB last week collected copies of the transcripts pertaining to recordings of the trap laid at Stephenson's house and his friend's house on May 31 involving Revanth and two others," another ACB officer said.