Court orders Telangana CM to attend hearing in cash-for-vote case

Hyderabad:  A city court on Tuesday ordered Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to attend the hearing of the cash-for-vote case on October 16.

Nampally Metropolitan Criminal Court directed all the accused, including Revanth Reddy, to attend the hearing.

During the hearing of the 2015 cash-for-vote case, the court took strong note of the absence of the accused except Mathaiah Jerusalem.

Revanth Reddy, Uday Simha, Vem Krishna Keerthan, and Venkata Veeraiah did not attend the hearing. Their counsels sought an exemption from hearing for the day.

The court, while accepting the request, directed that all accused should be present in the court during the next hearing on October 16.

The development came four days after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition filed by a few leaders of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), seeking transfer of the trial in the case to a court outside Telangana.

The Supreme Court on September 20 refused to transfer the trial to Bhopal. Revanth Reddy’s counsel had told the court that the BRS leaders filed the plea with a ‘politician motive’.

The apex court, however, directed Revanth Reddy not to interfere in any way with the functioning of the prosecution in the case.

A bench of Justice B. R. Gavai and K. V. Viswanathan directed that the Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau would not report to the Telangana Chief Minister about the prosecution of the case.

The case dates back to May 31, 2015, when Revanth Reddy, the then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA, was arrested by the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while allegedly trying to bribe nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson in place of his vote in favour of TDP candidate in the MLC (Member of Legislative Council) election held the next day.

The ACB video recordings purportedly showed Revanth and two of his aides offering Rs 50 lakh to Stephenson, when the police officers swooped down to arrest them.

Revanth Reddy was granted bail by the High Court on July 1, 2015.

Revanth Reddy, however, denied that he was trying to bribe the nominated MLA. He claimed that the MLA had called him to his house to discuss a business deal.

The ACB had filed a charge sheet against Revanth Reddy and the other accused for corruption and criminal conspiracy.

In 2017, Revanth Reddy quit TDP to join the Congress party.