Telangana forms panel to probe MLA poaching allegations against BJP

During a late-evening raid on October 26, Delhi-based Satish Sharma (33) alias Ramachandra Bharathi, a priest at a temple in Haryana’s Faridabad; D Simhayaji, a seer from Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh; and Nandakumar, a Hyderabad-based businessman, were arrested by police. The trio were present at the farmhouse of Reddy at Aziz Nagar in Moinabad.

While a local court rejected the request for their remand in judicial custody, the Telangana High Court asked the accused to surrender before police and cooperate with the investigation. The BJP, which distanced itself from the allegations, then approached the high court seeking a CBI inquiry.

The high court allowed police on Tuesday to proceed with their investigation.

In an order, principal secretary (home) Ravi Gupta said the special investigation team would be headed by Hyderabad police commissioner C V Anand. Other members of the team are Rema Rajeshwari, SP, Nalgonda; Kalmeshwar Singenavar, DCP (crimes), Cyberabad; R Jagadishwar Reddy, DCP, Shamshabad; N Venkateshwarlu, SP, Narayanpet; B Gangadhar, ACP, Rajendranagar; and Laxmi Reddy, SHO, Moinabad.

“Since the case is sensitive, high-profile and sensational in nature, and it involves investigation in multiple dimensions, which require thorough scientific and evidence-based investigation in an elaborate manner, it requires officers with experience and requisite expertise with a specific skill set to carry out the investigation,” the order read.

According to the FIR, Tandur MLA Reddy stated that Ramachandra Bharathi and Nandakumar met him on September 26 to persuade him not to contest the next elections as a TRS candidate but to join the BJP. Apart from Rs 100 crore, the MLA’s complaint said, contracts for central government works and high posts were also offered to him in return for contesting the polls as a BJP candidate.

They allegedly told Reddy that he would be booked in criminal cases and that the ED and the CBI would go after him if he refused the offer. As he declined the offer, they contacted him again on October 26, the FIR said. The Tandur MLA said he was asked to bring with him more TRS MLAs when Bharathi, Nandakumar, and Simhayaji would visit his farmhouse in Aziz Nagar for negotiations. The other MLAs were offered Rs 50 crore each for joining the BJP.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, soon after voting for the Munugode Assembly bypoll was over on November 3, called a press conference and released footage to support his MLA’s claims about the BJP trying to topple his government.

Rao said similar attempts to topple non-BJP governments were being undertaken in Delhi, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and that the “conspirators” had been successful in eight previous instances since 2015.

Rao said the three-hour-long footage from the farmhouse, which has been submitted before the high court, and other evidence were being sent to the chief justice of India, all high court chief justices, chief ministers and police chiefs of all states, chiefs of the CBI and the ED, presidents of all political parties and media houses to explain the seriousness of the matter.