Revanth Reddy wants only family to meet him

Meanwhile Mr Revanth Reddy, who has been arrested in the cash-for-vote scam, has asked jail officials not to allow any TD leaders but only his family members to meet him as he wants to spend more time with them. Several TD leaders had met him over the last two days in jail.

A jail official said, “As per the jail manual, we can’t allow too many mulakats. There is a cap on it. So Revanth Reddy wanted to spend more time with his family members as there is a marriage scheduled in the family. So he has requested party leaders not to visit him in jail often.”

Home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy asserted that Revanth Reddy would not have dared to bribe the nominated MLA without the support of AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. “There is a demand from people and political parties that Mr Naidu should be made the prime accused,” he said.

If the TS government books Mr Naidu, it is bound to throw up legal and constitutional challenges since he is the head of government of another state. “You are going to see dramatic changes in state politics. Mr Naidu, in a bid to defeat our candidates, offered Rs 5 crore and got entangled in the sordid affair,” the minister remarked.

He added, “In the Revanth Reddy episode, the main conspirator is Mr Naidu. He spoke to the MLAs. We have call data records of telephone conversations,” he alleged.

“No one is above the law. Mr Revanth Reddy is on record saying he had the backing of Mr Naidu,” the home minister said in Warangal, adding that he didn’t want to elaborate further since the matter is under investigation.

Telangana TD leaders on Wednesday criticised home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy for saying that AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu was involved in the Revanth Reddy cash for vote episode and that the Anti Corruption Bureau was in possession of video tapes to that effect.

Telangana TD president L. Ramana, senior TD MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah and former MLC Arikela Narsa Reddy said ACB director-general A.K. Khan had denied reports that they had video of the episode. They accused the TRS of organising an institution to arrange the footage of the episode and leaking it to media. They said if the ACB had organised the raid, how could the footage be leaked to the media.

However, it may be recalled that Mr Khan did not say that the ACB had not organised the footage. He only said that he didn’t know how media secured the footage.