Cyberabad police have registered an FIR against three men who were arrested from a farmhouse near Hyderabad while they were allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) – with offers of huge sums of cash, important positions and contracts – to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The arrests were made on Wednesday, October 26. Based on a complaint from TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma from Delhi, Nanda Kumar from Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy from Tirupati.
The case has been registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 171B (bribery) read with 171E (punishment of bribery), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the complainant Rohith Reddy, Ramachandra Bharati and Nanda Kumar from the BJP met him and “negotiated with him not to contest as candidate from TRS party and to join in BJP by resigning from TRS (sic).” The complainant also alleged that he was offered an amount of Rs 100 crore to contest in the next elections from the BJP. Rohith Reddy also mentioned that he was offered “central government civil contract works and other high central government positions for monetary benefits,” and was lured to join the BJP.
The Tandur MLA also told the police that the accused warned him of criminal cases and raids by the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation if he refused to join the BJP. They also allegedly told Rohith Reddy that the TRS-led Telangana government would be toppled by them. Since the inducement of a bribe by a political party is “unethical, undemocratic and encouraging corruption and polluting the politics”, the MLA decided to not entertain such unethical practice by the accused, says the FIR.
According to the complaint, on October 26, Ramachandra Bharati and Nanda Kumar contacted Rohith Reddy again, and informed him that they were visiting his farmhouse at Aziz Nagar, Moinabad for negotiations. They also allegedly asked him to mobilise a few other TRS MLAs, to offer them bribes of Rs 50 crore each to join the BJP. Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused further induced him and other MLAs to accept the bribes and to discharge their public duties “improperly and dishonestly” so that the TRS government could be destabilised. The complainant was informed that three persons – Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy – would visit the farmhouse to finalise the deal of joining the BJP by resigning from the TRS.
On a tip-off from Rohith Reddy, Cyberabad police reached the farmhouse on Wednesday night and arrested the three accused. As of Thursday morning, the trio were being questioned by the police at an undisclosed location. They will be produced in court later on Thursday.
(With IANS inputs)