Anti-Corruption Bureau court in Hyderabad on Tuesday remanded Telugu Desam Party MlA from Telangana, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, to 14 days judicial custody in connection with the cash-for-vote scam.
Veeraiah, who was grilled by the Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths for more than 8 hours on Monday was formally arrested in the evening on the same day and he was named as an accused in the case of bribing a nominated member of Telangana Assembly, Elvis Stephenson.
Venkata Veeraiah, who represents Sattupally constituency of Khammam district is the second TDP MlA to be arrested in the case. Earlier, the ACB had laid the trap and arrested TDP deputy leader in Telangana Assembly A Revanth Reddy while he was allegedly handing over Rs50 lakh to the nominated MlA as an advance on May 31. While Revanth Reddy and two other accused were released on bail by the State High Court last week, Venakata Veeraiah has now landed behind the bars.
After evading the questioning for almost a fortnight, Venkata Veeraiah appeared before the ACB on Monday where he was questioned about his role in arranging the bribe money.
ACB contended that he was consistently in touch with Revanth Reddy and other accused in the case during the process of luring the nominated MlA and he was aware of a larger conspiracy behind the operation.
During his presence in the court, Venakata Veeraiah told the reporters that he will fight back politically. “The arrest of Telugu Desam MlAs in the cash-for-vote scam is a conspiracy by Telangana Government and he will face it politically,” he said.
“TRS had got only 63 seats in the Assembly elections. How has it gone up to 82 now,” he asked charging the TRS with luring the MlAs of other parties.
Meanwhile, ACB moved a petition before the court seeking five days custody of Venkata Veeraiah for further questioning. But his lawyers opposed it and moved a petition to release him on bail. The court will take up the hearing of both the petitions on Wednesday.
Meanwhile ACB was looking for the other two accused of the case Jerusalem Muttaiah and Jimmy Babu.
ACB in its remand report said that Venkata Veeraiah had spoken to another accused Harry Sebastian 32 times over a period of three days from May 28 to May 30 and ten times to one more accused Jerusalem Muttaiah.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Andhra Pradesh Ministers led by deputy Chief Minister KE Krishna Murthy called on the President Pranab Mukherji in Hyderabad and complained to him against the attempt by the Telangana Government to impose its hegemony on AP Government in the common capital of Hyderabad.
He raised the issue of section 8 of AP State Reorganisation Act which has a provision for vesting the powers of law and order over Hyderabad to the Governor. “If the TRS has an objection to section 8 it should go to the Parliament to get the Act amended,” Krishna Murthy said.
The TDP Ministers urged the President to issue the orders to implement section 8 in the common capital for the next ten years. They also complained to the President about the alleged phone-tapping by Telangana Government and harassment of AP employees.
later the delegation members told the media that they submitted details of the tapping of phones of Harry Sebastian and member of Parliament G Mohan Rao to the President.
“President assured us that he will resolve the problems by talking to the Union Cabinet,” Krishna Murthy said.