2 accused in TRS MLAs poaching case re-arrested

Hyderabad: Shortly after their release, the two accused in the TRS MLAs poaching case were re-arrested on Thursday in connection with other cases registered against them.

Ramachandra Bharathi and K. Nanda Kumar were arrested by the Banjara Hills police soon after they were released on bail from Chanchalguda Central Prison.

They are likely to be produced before a court later in the day.

While Ramachandra Bharati was booked for holding multiple passports, Aadhaar cards and other documents, five cases were registered against Nanda Kumar for cheating and other offences.

The Telangana High Court had granted bail to all the three accused in the MLAs poaching case on December 1. However, they remained in jail for a week as they could not arrange two sureties and a personal bond for Rs 3 lakhs as directed by the court.

Simhayaji was released on Wednesday.

Ramachandra Bharati was booked by Banjara Hills police after the probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) found that he holds two passports.

The police booked him under Indian Penal Code sections 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and sections 12 of the Passports Act, 1967.

The accused holds one passport in the name of Shree Ramachandra Swami Ji and another in the name of Bharat Kumar Sharma.

The police had earlier booked him for forgery. On a complaint by one of the TRS MLAs Pilot Rohit Reddy, Banjara Hills police had registered a case for possessing fake Aadhaar, PAN cards and driving licenses.

Ramachandra Bharati, a priest from Faridabad in Haryana, is alleged to have close links with some top leaders of BJP.

Ramachandra Bharati along with Simhayaji, a pontiff from Tirupati and Nanda Kumar, a businessman in Hyderabad were arrested by Cyberabad police during a raid on a farm house at Moinabad near Hyderabad on October 26.

The police made the arrests on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, who alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others.

The accused were booked under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

Five cases were also booked against Nanda Kumar at different police stations in the city.

A case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was also registered against him after a person lodged the complaint that he took Rs 80 lakhs loan from him but failed to return the same and even abused him in the name of his caste.