Telangana MLAs' 'poaching' case: Three accused arrested, remanded in judicial custody

Hyderabad, October 30

Three persons who allegedly tried to “poach” four TRS legislators have been arrested and a local court here has remanded them to judicial custody.

The arrests were made on Saturday night after the Telangana High Court had set aside a lower court’s order and directed the accused in the case to surrender before police.

Earlier, a local court here on October 27 rejected the remand of three people, who were arrested by the Cyberabad police on the charge of trying to coax four TRS legislators into defecting, over not following the procedure of issuing a notice before the arrest.

The government appealed to the High Court against the lower court’s order.

Following TRS’ allegations that BJP tried to poach some of its MLAs, the saffron party filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a CBI probe.

Another judge of the High Court, on the petition by BJP, posted the matter for November 4 and deferred investigation till then.

Based on a complaint by Pilot Rohith Reddy, one of the legislators, cases under relevant sections – criminal conspiracy, offering bribe and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 – were filed against the trio—Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy—on the night of October 26.

As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly elections.

The incident led to a war of words between the BJP and TRS with allegations and counter allegations.