BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi) MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy on Saturday, December 17, challenged BJP's Telangana president Bandi Sanjay Kumar to prove within 24 hours the allegation that he had received police notice in the Bengaluru drugs case. Rohith Reddy dared Bandi Sanjay to come to Bhagyalaxmi temple at Charminar and prove his allegation, and demanded an apology if he was unable to do so. The MLA from Tandur, who is the complainant in the alleged party MLAs poaching case, visited the temple on Saturday and pledged that he had not received any notice from the Karnataka police in the drugs case. He said that no FIR or case was registered against him in such a case.
Earlier on Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) served notice to Rohith Reddy to appear before it on Monday, December 19. Last year in February, drugs worth Rs 4 crore were seized in Bengaluru and the names of numerous people were made public when a few Nigerian nationals were detained by Bengaluru police. Suspicions were raised that the ED notice was related to this case since Pilot Rohith Reddy had also attended the event. However, the MLA denied allegations of his involvement in any narcotics-related cases.
Alleging that the ED notice is the handiwork of the BJP, Rohith Reddy told reporters that he had no clue as to why the investigating agency has served the notice. "When there is any money laundering, any financial transaction is involved or when there is any crime or there is any subjected crime where my name is also there, then only the ED has to involve. In this notice, I don't understand why ED has come into the picture (served the notice). They just asked for my biodata in the notice," Rohith Reddy said. After receiving the ED notice, the MLA met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday, according to reports.
"I am challenging Bandi Sanjay to prove within 24 hours that Karnataka police served me the notice," said Rohith Reddy. The BRS MLA alleged that the BJP leaders were misleading the people of Telangana. He alleged that BJP was scared of BRS and hence it was using central agencies like ED, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and I-T (Income Tax) against BRS leaders. The MLA said an inquiry should be carried out by a judge to find out how Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar "predicted" beforehand that the ED would issue a notice to him.
Acting on a tip-off by Rohith Reddy, police had arrested three accused — Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy — from a farmhouse at Moinabad on October 26 when they were allegedly trying to lure four BRS MLAs to defect to the BJP. Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to other MLAs. The Telangana government on November 9 constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. The three accused were granted bail by the Telangana High Court on December 1.
With PTI and IANS inputs