Telangana HC sets aside MLA’s election for want of details
Vanam Venkateshwar Rao was a Congress candidate who defeated the BRS candidate Jalagam Venkat Rao in 2018 Assembly elections but soon defected to the BRS.
In yet another setback to BRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, the key complainant in the MLA poaching case, the Telangana High Court, on Wednesday, refused to pass an interim order on his plea for a stay on the investigations against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on allegations of money laundering.
Rohith Reddy, the BRS MLA from Tandoor, was the main complainant in the Moinabad Farmhouse case in which three people were arrested by the police on charges of trying to lure BRS MLAs offering money and key posts.
Reddy, who has already appeared twice before the ED, stated in his petition that the agency was collecting personal and family details. Although he appeared before the ED on 19 and 20 December, he refused to appear again on 27 December and instead filed the petition in the court.
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Reddy had said that he was offered Rs 100 crore, but no money exchanged hands. So, there was no ground for the ED to investigate the case. He claimed that as a whistleblower in the MLA poaching case the Central probe agency was trying to trap him, particularly after the ED interrogated Nanda Kumar, one of the accused in the prison.
While agreeing to hear his petition, the court refused to order an interim stay. The case will be heard again on 5 January. This is the second jolt for Reddy who had won high praise publicly from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for refusing to be lured by BJP’s “agents” to switch parties and topple the BRS government.
The high court’s decision to transfer the case to the CBI from the state government-appointed SIT was a big setback for both the chief minister and the BRS MLA who had won on Congress ticket but shifted to the BRS soon after Assembly elections.
The court also upbraided the chief minister for his press conference on 3 November when he had released all evidence collected in the poachgate case to the public.
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