Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu may be in trouble after an ACB special court in Hyderabad on Monday ordered a re-investigation into the infamous cash-for-votes case in Telangana.
The Times of India reported:
Dealing with a complaint filed by Alla Ramakrishna Reddy , the YSRCP MLA from Mangalagiri in Guntur district, who charged the Telangana state machinery , particularly the ACB, with failure in taking the investigation in the case to a logical conclusion, the judge directed the director general of ACB to probe the case and furnish a report to the court by September 29.
A report in The Hindu adds that the court wanted to re-investigate the case under Section 156 (3) of the Cr.P.C. that empowers the magistrate to check and monitor the performance of police, besides placing the persons named in the complaint as accused in the case.
Telangana TDP legislator A. Revanth Reddy was arrested by the ACB on May 31 when he was offering Rs 50 lakh to nominated MLA Stephenson to make him vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in the elections to Telangana's legislative council.
ACB, which had laid a trap on a complaint by Stephenson, also arrested Revanth Reddy's aides.
The ACB had earlier said that there were 102 telephone conversation records in another accused TDP leader Bishop Harry Sebastian's phone related to the cash-for-vote case.
However, the most important phone call was one alleged to be between Elvis Stephenson and Chandrababu Naidu.
The audio tape was first played by T News, a Telugu news channel owned by ruling TRS and was later picked up by others.
During the conversation, Naidu purportedly assured the nominated member that he is with him. "Our people briefed me. I am with you don't bother. For everything I am with you. What all they spoke we will honour(sic)" Naidu was heard as telling the legislator.
“The investigating agency wanted to protect the accused for reasons best known to itself despite the fact that the voice sample it had of the accused matched with that of Naidu. The forensic lab confirmed that the voice in the telephonic conversation was that of Naidu,” the YSRC MLA has now alleged.