Cash for vote scam: Audio-video material sent to FSL to ascertain their authenticity
Hyderabad: Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau on Friday sent electronic devices including some phones containing few audio clips and video footage relating to the cash-for-vote case involving TDP MLA Revanth Reddy to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) here to ascertain their authenticity.
"We have sent the video clips as well as audio recordings to FSL which was collected when Revanth Reddy and two others were caught by ACB officials while allegedly offering bribe of Rs 50 lakh to nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson," a senior ACB officer, part of the team investigating the cash-for-vote scam said.
"The idea is to determine the authentication of audio-video material... The FSL experts will examine and report whether it is original or edited one," he said.
"Two i-phones and three digital audio recorders, the complainant's (Stephenson's) phone, CPU and hard disk seized from the house of the accused during searches conducted as part of the investigation were among the devices that have been sent to the FSL," the ACB officer said.
"After analysing the audio video recordings or footage wherein the audio recordings will be matched with voice samples collected... we expect results to come within a week," he said.
On May 31, Telangana TDP MLA Revanth Reddy was caught by ACB along with Bishop Harry Sebastian and R Uday Simha while paying an alleged bribe of Rs 50 lakh to Stephenson, a nominated MLA from the Anglo-Indian community for supporting the TDP nominee in Legislative Council elections on June 1.
The ACB after registering a case and taking the trio into custody had said it had collected clinching evidence in the form of audio or video recording relating to the cash-for-vote case even as TV channels had subsequently aired video footage of the "conversation" between Revanth and Stephenson.
The agency had also presented the audio and video clips in the special court for ACB cases here.
Asked if audio records of an alleged conversation between Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu and Elvis Stephenson that were later aired by some TV channels were also sent to the FSL, the ACB officer declined to comment.
The trio is presently under judicial custody and lodged in Cherlapalli Central Prison here.
