Officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday appeared to have tracked down the source for the Rs. 50 lakh seized from Telugu Desam legislator A. Revanth Reddy as he was ‘allegedly’ handing it over to nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson on May 31 in the ‘Cash for Vote’ scam.
The money was said to be a down payment and the MLA is alleged to have sought the latter’s vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in the polls to the Telangana Legislative Council. The MLA and two of his associates - Sebastian and Udaysimha, were first taken to Osmania General Hospital and after a medical check-up, brought to the ACB head office for questioning.
On the third consecutive day, Monday, the sleuths fired between 80 and 90 questions to the MLA and the two others, individually about the whole episode and specifically about whether other political leaders were involved, but in the presence of their legal counsel. It is reliably learnt that they had zeroed in on where the initial amount of Rs. 50 lakh had come from and also how and from where they would mobilise the remaining Rs. 4.5 crore in what is being said to be a Rs. 5 crore deal.
Monday’s interrogation drew attention in the wake of an audio tape that was aired on Sunday night by a television channel owned by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi that was purported to be a phone conversation between Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Mr. Stephenson. There have been slanging matches between the TDP and TRS with the former alleging the tape as ‘fabricated’ and the latter saying it was a recording made by Mr. Stephenson on his phone during the conversation.
The MLA was driven out of the ACB office around 6 p.m. on Monday for a medical check-up first before being dropped at the office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT). On Tuesday, the routine will be much the same - medical check-up first and sitting through the ACB questioning, check-up again and being produced before a magistrate because the 4-day police custody ends on Tuesday.
When asked, Ch. Sudheer Kumar, advocate on behalf of Mr. Revanth Reddy, said his client had answered all the questions asked by ACB officials. He added that following his complaint to the magistrate that he was being denied basic amenities, the officials were directed by the court to ensure that basic food, water, blankets and sanitation facilities were provided in the SIT office.
Countering the allegation, Additional Commissioner-Crimes & SIT, in a release denied it and said the MLA and the two other accused were provided with mineral water and hygienic food cooked in the ACB canteen.
