Telangana Police arrest ‘BJP agents’ who tried to woo TRS MLAs, seize cash; BJP calls it a political drama

During the raid, they also arrested Delhi-based Sateish 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, who were present at the farmhouse of one of the MLAs, Pilot Rohith Reddy, at Aziz Nagar in Moinabad.

According to reports, cash to the tune of Rs 15 crore cash was seized from a car at the farmhouse and the accused were in touch with MLAs Pilot, B Harshvardhan Reddy, G Balraju and Rega Kantha Rao.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra told the media Wednesday that police raided the farmhouse on a tip-off from TRS MLAs who told the police that they were being lured to leave the party led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR.

The commissioner said that the MLAs informed the police that the three persons who were present at the farmhouse lured them with offers of money, work contracts, and positions to rebel against the ruling party. He said action would be taken against the accused as per the law and the investigation is in progress.

A bypoll is scheduled to be held at Munugode assembly segment scheduled on November 3, after sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy quit Congress and joined the BJP a few months ago. Reddy is now contesting from BJP against former MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of TRS and Palvai Sravanthi Reddy of Congress.

TRS social media convenor M Krishank tweeted that “it was a conspiracy against KCR Ji’s Government by BJP’s big leaders” (sic) and shared photographs of the arrested persons with union minister G Kishan Reddy. The post was also retweeted by Minister and TRS working president KT Rama Rao.

Y Satish Reddy, also TRS party’s social media convenor, tweeted a video with the caption “Amit Shah’s failed attempt in #Telangana, Caught red-handed bribing MLAs to switch party!” The party’s followers started to trend “#TelanganaNotForSale” on Twitter.

BJP state president Bandi Sanjay told reporters Wednesday night that people were laughing at the development orchestrated by the CM. He demanded the CM to release complete footage of CCTV cameras from Pragathi Bhavan, the CM’s official residence, in the last three days. The BJP president blamed the CM for attempting to taint “Hindu dharma” by involving seers and priests in the alleged “political drama”.

BJP leader and party’s national vice-president D K Aruna said it was “another drama” by TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

On Twitter, she blamed Rao for “cheap politics” and that no one is going to believe the “cinema-like” story being doled out ahead of the bypoll and demanded the chief minister to swear before Yadadari Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy deity that he has no role in the development.

Responding to the development, BJP MP from Nizamabad Arvind Dharmapuri said the four TRS MLAs “would not win another election and won’t get Rs 100, forget about Rs 100 crore.” He blamed the TRS leadership for the “drama” and demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge of Telangana High Court to find out the source of cash.

Munugode BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy tweeted asking who would pay Rs 100 crore each to the four TRS MLA who won’t deserve even Rs 100.

According to the FIR, Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy in his complaint said stated that Ramachandra Bharathi and Nandakumar had met him on September 26 to convince him not to contest the next elections as TRS candidate, but join BJP.

Pilot said that apart from the offer of Rs 100 crore in cash, contracts to central government works and high posts were offered to him if he quit TRS and contested as a BJP candidate in the next elections. They told Pilot that criminal cases would be lodged against him if he refused the offer and then central agencies ED and CBI would be after him. As he declined the offer, they contacted him again on October 26, the FIR said.

Pilot said that 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 leaving TRS and joining the BJP. Reddy informed the police about the conspiracy and sought legal action, police said.

Cyberabad police have registered a case against the three arrested persons under section 120-B, 171-B r/w 171-E 506 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act-1988.