Telangana high court on Saturday allowed the Cyberabad police to send the three accused – Ramachandra Bharathi alias Satish Sharma from Faridabad, Nandakumar alias Nandu from Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy from Tirupati -- to judicial remand in connection with the alleged poaching of four TRS MLAs.
Acting on a petition filed by the Cyberabad police challenging the verdict of the ACB court rejecting the remand of the accused, the high court said the three could be produced before the ACB Court again for judicial custody.
The high court, however, gave 24 hours’ time to the three accused to surrender before the Cyberabad police. In the meantime, they could file a revision petition in the high court or move to the Supreme Court.
In their remand report submitted to the high court on Friday, the Cyberabad police produced some clinching evidences to prove how the accused tried to lure the four MLAs – Pilot Rohit Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, B Harshavardhan Reddy and Rega Kantha Rao – into the BJP.
The police produced the data obtained from the seized mobile phones of Nandakumar and Ramachandra Bharathi, including WhatsApp chat and SMS messages with the top BJP leaders like Sunil Bansal, in-charge of Telangana affairs and B L Santosh, organising secretary of the BJP.
The police pointed out, quoting the SMS messages from Bharathi to Bansal and Santosh, that at least 25 sitting MLAs were ready to join, with the plan being to get 40. The name of another person Tushar Vellappally, who contested against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, also came up during the audio clips that surfaced earlier.
The documents also speak in detail how the entire episode unfolded, after the accused began calling Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy from September 26, offering to pay Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore to each MLA who shift from the TRS to BJP.
They also said he could face ED, CBI raids, if he did not accept the proposal, following which Rohit Reddy decided to trap them recording their meeting. He shared the information with the three other MLAs.
The police arranged four surveillance cameras and two voice recorders. Two cameras were installed in the hall of the farmhouse while two voice recorders were placed in Rohit Reddy’s kurta.
The cameras were switched on at 3.05 pm and have recordings of what happened from 3.10 pm when Rohit Reddy entered the hall along with the accused. An hour later, the other three MLAs reached the spot.
Rohit Reddy was earlier asked to give a signal when the meeting was over, by ordering for coconut water (Nariyal Paani Leke Avo). Just as he asked his domestic help for ‘Nariyal Paani’ after the meeting went on for three and a half hours, the police entered the scene.
Police say that the three accused, when asked about the purpose of their visit, kept quiet. The police then seized the pre-arranged electronic spy gadgets from the hall along with the two voice recorders from Rohit Reddy, in which the entire conversation is recorded.
The conversation also disclosed how the accused offered bribe of Rs.50 crore to each MLA and also Ramachandra Bharathi stating that they had done ‘defection in similar manner’ in Karnataka, Delhi and other States. The voice recorder also discloses the phone call made to Tushar and Santosh.