MLAs poaching case: Police summon accused for questioning

Hyderabad, Oct 28: Cyberabad police on Friday served notices to three accused arrested for allegedly trying to poach four MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy have been directed to appear before police within 24 hours.

They are likely to be questioned at the Moinabad police station, where a case was registered against them after they were arrested from a farmhouse on Wednesday night while trying to lure TRS MLAs with offers of huge sums of money, important positions and contracts.

The accused were served notices under section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This came hours after a city court dismissed the police plea to send them to judicial custody.

The police produced the accused before a judge at his residence in Saroornagar on Thursday night.

The judge rejected the police petition for sending the accused to judicial custody, citing lack of evidence. He observed that the Prevention of Corruption Act does not apply to the case as there is no evidence of bribe money.

The judge told police to issue notices to the accused under Section 41 of Criminal Procedure Code for questioning. Following the court order, the police released all the accused.

The three men, said to be close to some top BJP leaders, were arrested from a farmhouse at Moinabad on Wednesday night while they were trying to lure four MLAs of the TRS with offers of money.

On a complaint by one of the MLAs, Pilot Rohit Reddy, police registered an FIR against Ramachandra Bharati of Delhi, Nanda Kumar of Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy of Tirupati.

According to the complainant, the accused offered him an amount of Rs.100 crore. They also offered to give Central government civil contract works and other high central government positions for monetary benefits and lured him to join BJP.

The MLA told police that they warned that if he does not join the BJP, there will be criminal cases and raids by ED/CBI and the Telangana government led by TRS will be toppled by them.

The accused offered bribes of Rs 50 crore each to three other MLAs to join BJP. On a tip-off by Rohit Reddy, Cyberabad police reached the farmhouse and arrested the three accused.