Hyderabad: Telangana Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy underwent almost a full day’s questioning by the Income Tax authorities on Wednesday in the three-year-old investigation into the cash-for-votes scam, which is gathering steam ahead of the TS elections.
The I-T officials questioned Revanth Reddy on the source of the Rs 50 lakh seized by the Anti- Corruption Bureau in 2015, as he was offering it to TRS nominated Anglo-Indian MLA Elvis Stephenson. He was also grilled on the alleged shell companies floated by him and his family.
Sources revealed that the entire process of questioning Revanth Reddy and his aide R. Uday Simha was video recorded. The I-T authorities have asked Mr Reddy to appear before them again on October 23.
Interestingly, intelligence sleuths from Andhra Pradesh were seen at Ayakar Bhavan collecting information regarding the progress in the income tax investigation.
It should be noted that Mr Reddy is Accused No. 1 and Bishop Harry Sebastian is Accused No. 2 in the chargesheet filed by the Telangana ACB in the 2015 scam.
The two have been accused of trying to bribe Mr Stephenson with Rs 5 crore, a ticket to Jerusalem, and a nominated MLA seat in the AP legislative Assembly, if he voted in favour of the TD in the Legislative Council elections. Mr Reddy was caught by the ACB handing over cash of Rs 50 lakh (as advance) to Mr Stephenson at his residence in Bhoiguda.
Sources revealed to this newspaper that Mr Reddy was asked how he planned to pay Rs 4.5 crore to the MLA and to account for the source of the Rs 50 lakh cash he handed over to the MLA. He was also questioned regarding Rs l.5 crore cash seized from the house of his friend K.L. Sreedhar Reddy of KLSR Infra. Mr Revanth Reddy was also asked about Bhupa Infra, which is owned by his brother A. Kondal Reddy and Krishna Reddy.
The questioning of Mr Revanth Reddy and Mr Uday Simha started around 11 am on Wednesday and ended at around 6 pm. “The I-T authorities have asked me to appear for another round of questioning on October 23. The opposition party’s attempts to weaken me have failed,” he said.
