Hyderabad: The case of alleged poaching of four TRS legislators took a curious turn on Thursday night with the ACB special court turning down the remand of the three accused due to lack of proper evidence. The accused — Ramachandra Bharathi, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy — walked free.
Though the accused were taken into custody on Wednesday, the Cyberabad police did not produce them before the magistrate during court hours and took them to his residence late at night. The magistrate is said to have denied grant of remand as police did not seize any cash from the scene of alleged offence which is considered to be an evidence while invoking the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court directed the police to follow the Supreme Court guidelines and issue notice under CrPC Section 41 before effecting the arrest. “We released the three accused following the court directives,” Rajendranagar assistant commissioner of police B. Gangadhar told Deccan Chronicle.
What is more curious is that the police informed the court that no cash was seized from the farmhouse. This was in sharp contrast to the claims of the TRS leaders and some vernacular TV channels that at least Rs 15 crore cash was seized from a vehicle in the farmhouse. The TRS leaders had claimed that the money was brought to pay as advance to the four legislators.
Apparently sensing the ground situation, TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao had earlier issued a gag order on his partymen asking them to not speak on the case as investigation was in progress.
The court verified the remand report in which the police did not mention the recovery of cash from the accused. The court felt that the Section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act was not applicable for accused in the case without any cash seizure.
Earlier, the police led by senior officials grilled the accused in connection with the alleged offer of Rs 100 crore to four TRS MLA, asking them to quit the party and contest on a BJP ticket. It was reported that the police officials had focused on the deal-making of the accused.
