Hyderabad: Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a chargesheet against state Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy, the Malkajgiri MP, and others in the cash-for-vote scam of 2015 here on Thursday.
The others listed in the case were Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, MLA from Sathupally, self-proclaimed bishop Harry Sebastian, Rudra Sivakumar Uday Simha, Mathaiah Jerusalem and TD ex-MLC Vem Narendar Reddy’s son Vem Krishna Keerthan.
The ED has provisionally attached Rs 50 lakh in cash that had been allegedly offered by the accused to Elvis Stephenson, the Anglo-Indian nominated MLA, to vote in favour of the Telugu Desam (TD) candidate.
An FIR had been registered by the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against Revanth Reddy, who was with the Telugu Desam at that time, and others.
The ACB had laid a trap and recorded the payment of the bribe amount of Rs 50 lakh in cash to Stephenson. The ACB arrested the accused after they were caught in a trap and filed a chargesheet after the investigation.
The ED thereafter recorded the statements of the accused/witnesses including Revanth Reddy, Harry Sebastian and Rudra Uday Simha who were involved in the actual handing over of the bribe amount to Stephenson. They were also confronted with the available audio-visual recordings of the encounters.
Officials said the ED investigations have established that Revanth Reddy, Venkata Veeraiah and others had conspired to bribe Stephenson for securing his vote for Narender Reddy, the TD candidate in the Legislative Council election that was slated for June 1, 2015.
In pursuance of their conspiracy, the accused had contacted Stephenson and promised him a bribe of Rs 5 crore. Stephenson made a complaint to the ACB police and a 'trap' was laid. His meeting with the accused was secretly audio-video recorded.
A phone conversation between Stephenson and Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu was also verified by forensic experts and the voice was found to be that of Naidu.
As per the case, the accused persons met the complainant at his house on May 30, 2015, and made the bribe offer.
The next day, Revanth Reddy, Harry Sebastian and Rudra Uday Simha came to the house of Malcolm Taylor, a friend of Stephenson, to hand over the advance bribe amount of Rs 50 lakh in cash. This was when they were trapped by the ACB and taken into custody along with the seized cash, officials said.
“The cash had been handed over to the accused by Krishna Keerthan, son of Narendra Reddy, to help his father win the election,” officials said.
ED’s investigation has established that the accused persons committed the scheduled offence as well as the offence of money laundering by dealing with the bribe money. ED thereon filed a prosecution complaint against the accused persons, with a prayer to hold trial against them for committing the offence of money laundering.
