Special Court for ACB on Friday granted a four-day custody of TDP MLA A. Revanth Reddy and two others in cash-for-vote case. After hearing arguments by the counsel for ACB Surender Rao seeking custody of the trio and opposing the same by Mr. Reddy’s advocate, SPE judge Laxmipati allowed the ACB to take them into custody with some conditions.
The three would be examined in the presence of their lawyer. They would be in the custody of the ACB officials from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. They would be lodged in Charlapally central prison daily in the evening.
“ACB officials would try to ascertain source of the Rs. 50 lakh seized from the accused but it would be a tough task to elicit information from the MLA, who is an articulate and aggressive leader,” said a police officer. There is little the investigators can do if the information they want doesn’t come from the three accused.
Sources in ACB said they would rely on other persons, whose numbers were frequently called from the phones used by the accused to ascertain facts. Help of bank officials and Income Tax authorities would be also be sought to trace the source of money.
‘Phone tapping’
Referring to allegations of tapping phone of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, ACB Director General A.K. Khan told The Hindu that ACB was a professional agency and duly followed the procedure established by law in investigating the case. “Our officers are trained and followed the procedures in investigation of the case,” he said.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister K.E. Krishnamurthy exuded confidence that Mr. Revanth Reddy will come out unscathed.
Asked if the Revanth Reddy episode has affected the ruling party’s image, Mr. Krishnamurthy initially said it was not the platform to speak about the issue. However, he said it was a complicated matter and there were several aspects to it, and recalled that the Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao believed to have told some of his party MLAs that they would hear a sensational news one hour before the arrest of TDP MLA Revanth Reddy in a sting operation conducted by the ACB sleuths.
