Hyderabad: In the audiotape, one hears Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu assuring nominated MLA Mr Stephenson of fulfilling “all commitments” and seeking his cooperation.
Earlier, Mr Revanth Reddy was caught on camera telling Mr Stephenson that he had been authorised to speak by Mr Naidu. He gave a commitment to pay Rs 5 crore to the nominated MLA for his vote, and paid Rs 50 lakh. He had also assured him of a nominated seat in the AP quota if he lost his seat in the Telangana State Assembly.
ACB officials said the mobile phone tower location of Mr Revanth Reddy’s phone matched with the time that the gunmen said the MLA had gone out without them. It also pointed to the presence of the MLA at Mr Stephenson’s friend’s house.
The ACB said the gunmen and driver of Mr Revanth Reddy are key witnesses and their statements will be recorded before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code as it not retractable. Investi-gators said that Mr Naidu’s name figured at least 15 times in the Revanth Reddy tapes.
Though the TD brass had allegedly ordered party leaders to get the support of three MLAs to win a MLC seat in the recent elections, ACB probe found that Mr Revanth Reddy and others were asked to try for more MLAs to embarrass the TRS.
Call data pertaining to 20 persons including two Rajya Sabha MPs and a few TD legislators are also being analysed by ACB after it was identified that calls from these numbers had been made to Mr Revanth Reddy’s phone four days before the polls. In another interesting development, ACB has decided to record the statement of legislator K. Kanakaiah of Illendu, Khammam district, who claimed he too was approached by TD leaders.
Revanth proves tough nut
While the ACB is claiming that TD MLA A. Revanth Reddy is not cooperating with the interrogators, his lawyers alleged that the police is ill treating him.
Mr Revanth Reddy, Bishop Harry Sebastian and Rudra Uday Simha were grilled for the second day by ACB officials.
Sources said ACB questioned Revanth Reddy regarding the source of the money to which he feigned ignorance. Udya Simha told ACB that an unidentified person brought the bag with Rs 50 lakh. When asked about the call data records Revanth asked ACB officials why they were asking him when it is available with them.
Revanth’s advocate Pramod said, “Revanth said that he was not given drinking water on Saturday night in the lock-up. They didn’t allow him to brush his teeth or change his dress and did not allow him to sleep. He was made to sit most of the time,” The advocates decided to tell the court.
