Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy on Friday got a temporary reprieve in the cash-for-vote scandal with the Supreme Court deferring the case to July.
A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice B R Gawai, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sandeep Mehta, took the decision while hearing a petition filed by BRS legislator and former minister G Jagadish Reddy and three others seeking transfer of the cash-for-vote case from Telangana high court to Madhya Pradesh on January 31.
The plea, seeking transfer of the trial to Bhopal, raised the issue of a free and fair trial saying that Revanth Reddy has now become the chief minister as well as home minister of Telangana.
“The trial has to be impartial and uninfluenced which is the fundamental requirement of a fair trial and the first and the foremost imperative of the criminal justice delivery system,” advocate P Mohith Rao who argued for the BRS leaders said.
“Because most of the prosecution witnesses were examined and the accused no.1 being the chief minister and home minister for Telangana can directly influence the de-facto complainant and officers pressurizing them to defer/resile from their earlier statements and further to depose false under the threat,” the plea claimed.
The plea has also sought transfer of the trial in another connected case from a court in Telangana to Bhopal.
The Supreme Court then asked Revanth Reddy and the Telangana government to file a counter affidavit against Jagadish Reddy’s petition within four weeks. However, because of election process, they did not file the counter.
As a result, the Supreme Court bench was forced to postpone the hearing to July.
On May 31, 2015, Revanth Reddy, then with the Telugu Desam Party, was apprehended by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) while allegedly paying Rs 50 lakh bribe to Elvis Stephenson, a nominated MLA, for supporting TDP nominee Vem Narendar Reddy in the legislative council elections.
Apart from Revanth Reddy, the ACB had arrested some others. All of them were later granted bail.
On January 5, the apex court had deferred till February the hearing of A Revanth Reddy’s separate petition challenging the high court order dismissing his plea questioning the jurisdiction of an ACB court in conducting the trial in the 2015 cash-for-vote scam case.
Reddy has challenged the June 1, 2021 order of the high court by which his plea questioning the jurisdiction of the special ACB court to conduct the trial in the case was dismissed.
In July 2015, the ACB had filed a charge sheet against Reddy and others under the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The ACB had then claimed it has collected clinching evidence against the accused in the form of audio/video recordings, and recovered an advance amount of Rs 50 lakh.
