Cash for votes case: SC seeks reply of Telangana CM on plea to transfer trial against him

New Delhi [India], February 10 : The Supreme Court on Friday sought Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's response to the plea seeking a transfer trial against him in the 2015 cash-for-vote case from Telangana to Bhopal.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta asked the Telangana Government and its Chief Minster to reply.
The court was hearing a plea filed by BRS leader Guntakandla Reddy and a former minister seeking a transfer of trial from Telangana to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
In the plea filed through advocate P Mohith Rao, Guntakandla Reddy said, "That most of the prosecution witnesses were examined and the Accused No.1 (Revanth Reddy) being the Chief Minister and Home Minister for the State of Telangana can directly influence the de facto Complainant and officers pressurizing them to defer/resile from their earlier statements and further to depose false and there is every possibility that the officers/ de facto Complainant will resile/defer from their earlier statements or will depose falsely under the threat."
According to the petition, Revanth was a former Member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and won the Legislative Assembly election for the term 2009-14 and 2014-18 from Kodangal Assembly Constituency, having been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from Telugu Desam Party and Reddy offered a bribe of Rs 50 Lakhs as advance as "directed by his former boss Chandrababu Naidu (former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh) to Elvis Stephenson (Complainant) to abstain from casting his vote for the biennial election to be held on June 2015 or to vote in favour of TDP party".
It was alleged Revanth along with other accused had committed a cognizable offence to lure away the vote bank of Bharat Rashtra Samithi Party (formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi Party) and to see that the representative of Telugu Desam Party won in the biennial election to be held on June 2015.