Cash-For-Vote Scam: ACB Probing Role Of All Involved Including AP CM Chandrababu Naidu 

Hyderabad: Following the directions of Anti-Corruption Bureau court special judge N. Victor Immanuel, the authorities of the Telangana ACB on Wednesday informed the ACB Court here that it is investigating the role of all those involved in the cash-forvote scam case after registering an FIR in May 2015.

The accused include Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu besides T-TDP MLA Revanth Reddy in the cash-for-vote scandal that rocked not only both the Telugu states, but also entire nation in 2015.

On the plea of YSRCP MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy for adding AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu as accused in the case, the ACB said the contents of the FIR in the case are one and the same. In the context of the YSRCP MLA’s plea for the addition of Chandrababu Naidu as accused in the case, the ACB’s fresh statement that this is not a new contention and that they are already investigating the same matter goes to show that they are actually probing the role of the AP CM, analysts say.

The YSRCP MLA in his complaint urged the court to include Naidu as an accused in the case. He claimed that he got the voice samples of Naidu in the telephonic conversation he had with Stephenson and one from his speech delivered at the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, verified through an independent scientific agency, which concluded that both samples belonged to the AP chief minister.

He had even cited Seema Kotalwar, a scientist at Digital Forensic Science Department, Helik Advisory Ltd, Mumbai, as a witness to the case along with Elvis Stephenson, his daughter Jessica Stephenson, his friend Malcolm Taylor.

The ACB authorities filed a memo to this effect in court and disclosed that they will soon file an additional chargesheet in the case after completing the investigation. The May 2015 FIR was a result of the complaint filed by nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson who alleged that the TDP chief had sent his legislator Revanth Reddy and others to buy his support for Rs 5 crore to ensure election of his party candidate as MLC.

The ACB in its memo also disclosed that it sent several material objects collected in its probe in the case to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Hyderabad and that it obtained the reports from the lab, but the matter is still under investigation pending collection of evidence.

Meanwhile, special judge Victor Immanuel of the ACB Court on August 29 took cognisance of the preliminary chargesheet filed by ACB earlier and issued summons to three accused - A. Re vanth Reddy, Harry Sabastian and Rudra Udaya Simha, directing them to appear before the court on September 29. The High Court quashed the case against another accused Jerusalem Mathaiah. The ACB filed an appeal in the Supreme Court which is yet to take up the case. ACB is still looking into the role of another accused TDP MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah.

In another related develop ment, Justice B Siva Sankara Rao of the Hyderabad High Co urt issued bailable warrant against Stephenson, the complainant in the case and sought his presence in the court on September 30 for hearing a contempt case filed against him in the same case.

The judge took objection to the plea made by Stephenson who urged the judge not to hear the quash petition filed by Mathaiah and sought the transfer of the case to another judge. The judge ordered a contempt case to be registered against the nominated MLA.