The Cyberabad police moved to Telangana High Court against lower court's decision to not send three persons accused of having lured TRS MLAs to join the BJP, stated reports.
The police reportedly filed an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act against a seer named D Simhayaji, his disciple Ramachandra Bharati alias Sateish Sharma and businessman Nandakumar. They were accused of poaching MLAs from TRS by offering them large amounts of money, a Scroll report stated.
The four MLAs--P Rohit Reddy, Bheeram Harshvardhan Reddy, P Rega Kantha Rao and Guvvala Balaraju--were spotted at a farmhouse in the Aziz Nagar of Cyberabad on October 26.
Accused presented in court
The three accused were presented before an anti-corruption special court seeking judicial custody but the court refused stating that there was no evidence of the alleged crime, the report stated.
The court, reportedly, also noted that Prevention of Corruption Act did not apply in the case since the police had presented no evidence of seizure of money from accused persons.
The High Court directed the accused persons to remain in the city for 24 hours on and said that they will hear the matter today, October 29.
Viral audio clips
Two purported audio clips of exchange between Bharati and MLA P Rohit Reddy surfaced on social media in which a man assumbed to be Bharati is heard urging Reddy to get more legislators to join the BJP before the Munugode bye-polls which will be held on November 3.
BJP refutes
The BJP refuted claims of poaching and also said that the audio clips were a part of "TRS drama".
In a bid to prove the saffron party's innocence, the State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar went to the Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district on Friday and took an oath claiming party had no role in the alleged poaching attempt.
"An oath was taken in the presence of Yadadri Sri Lakshminarasimha Swamy that BJP was not involved in the MLA's purchase case," he tweeted.
Bye-polls and preps
The by-election, scheduled to be held on November 3, was necessitated by resignation of Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who quit the Congress party and joined BJP.
Meanwhile, TRS cadres were busy making arrangements for the public meeting at Bangarigadda village in Chandur mandal.
Chief Minister KCR, who is yet to comment on the case, is likely to launch an all-out attack on the BJP over its alleged attempt to buy the TRS MLAs and destabilize the state government.
What is Telangana 'poaching' case
Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy were arrested by police from a farmhouse near Hyderabad on October 26 when they were trying to lure four MLAs of TRS with offers of huge sums of money.
Cyberabad police conducted the raid on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, one of the MLAs. He alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others.
The accused were booked under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.
The accused discussed the 'deal' to buy MLAs and also mentioned the names of some top BJP leaders.
