Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday and the CM is likely to demand a probe into the alleged cash-for-vote scam.
As the wrangling between the Andhra and Telangana intensified, 50 FIRs were registered by Andhra Pradesh Police on Tuesday against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for alleged illegal tapping of phones of his Andhra counterpart.
Telangana Police conducted raids at the houses of TDP MLA Revanth Reddy and two others arrested in connection with cash-for-vote scam which triggered the entire row.
“The (AP) Director General of Police and Chief Secretary would go to Delhi tomorrow and meet the Union Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary and others and hand over a representation, urging them to issue rules concerning section 8 (of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act),” Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu said.
As Governor ESL Narasimhan had not exercised his powers, Andhra government decided to ask him to exercise them, he said, adding that Cabinet passed a resolution to this effect. Hyderabad is the common capital of two states but Andhra Pradesh does not have executive powers in the city.
Over 50 cases have been registered by Andhra police against Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao over tapping of Naidu’s phone. The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet passed a resolution against the Telangana government. In the audio tape which was leaked, Naidu is heard taking to the complainant Telangana MLC Stephenson. Stephenson alleges that he was offered a bribe of 50 lakhs by TDP for support in the Telangana assembly. The anti-corruption bureau will be recording Stephenson statement today
The slug-fest between governments of the two states – born of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh exactly a year ago – started with arrest of TDP MLA in Telangana Revanth Reddy by Telangana anti-corruption bureau while allegedly offering bribe to a nominated MLA for voting for TDP nominee in Legislative Council election. This was followed by surfacing of audio tapes, purportedly containing Naidu’s tapped conversation. Naidu has denied that it was his voice.
Three teams of Telangana ACB conducted searches at the residences of Revanth Reddy, Sebastian Harry and Uday Simha, and seized a computer CPU from Reddy’s house on Tuesday. Reddy and the two others were arrested on May 31 while allegedly trying to hand over Rs 50 lakh to nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson to vote for TDP nominee.
They were produced before the special ACB court as their police custody ended on Tuesday, and were remanded in judicial custody till June 15.
ACB also filed a petition before the chief metropolitan court here seeking allotment of a court to record the statement of nominated MLA Stephenson, the complainant, under CrPC section 164 (which would be admissible in the trial).
The court entrusted the responsibility to the third ACMM court which will fix a date for recording statement on Wednesday. The ACB would also file its response to Revanth’s bail application on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao, son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, alleged that Chandrababu Naidu was turning the issue into one concerning the common people of his state.
“He (Naidu) is trying to make (look) his problem as the problem of people by taking cover under the post of Chief Minister. Revanth Reddy repeatedly said (in a video clip allegedly showing him) that he was doing it at the behest of Chandrababu Naidu. Now, Chandrababu Naidu should have an answer on this,” Rama Rao said.
Telangana ACB had on Tuesday denied the media reports that it had tapped the phones of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and other TDP leaders. “These allegations are totally baseless and unfounded,” ACB Director General A K Khan said in a statement.
