Telangana: FIR against 3 after TRS MLA alleges Rs 100 crore poaching bid by BJP

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 27 : Ahead of the Munugode bypolls, Cyberabad Police late Wednesday raided a farmhouse in Ranga Reddy district of Telangana, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, and detained three people for allegedly attempting to poach MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with the promise of huge amounts of money.
Following a complaint of TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy on Wednesday, an FIR was registered at the Moinabad Police Station under Sections 120-B, 171-B r/w 171-E 506 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act-1988,
The three accused have been identified as Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy.
In the FIR, Reddy alleged that Ramachandra Bharati who came to Hyderbad from Delhi and Nanda Kumar of Hyderabad, both belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party had met him and offered him Rs 100 crore to join the BJP.
"Ramachandra Bharati of Delhi and Nanda Kumar of Hyderabad, both belonging to the BJP, met the complainant and negotiated with him to not to contest as a candidate from the TRS party and to join in BJP by resigning from TRS party and to contest in the next elections from BJP for which they offered him an amount of Rs 100 crore and also offered to give central government civil contract works and other high central government positions for monetary benefits and lured him to join the BJP," the FIR reads.
Acoording to the FIR, MLA Rohith Reddy also alleged that they were threatened that criminal cases will be foisted against him and raids by the Enforecement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) if they did not join the BJP.
On October 26, 2022, they again contacted him and informed that they will arrive in the afternoon hours to his farmhouse located at Aziz Nagar, Moinabad for negotiation and also informed him to mobilize some other TRS MLAs for offering them bribe of Rs 50 crore each to join BJP, the FIR read.
The FIR further reads that the accused persons induced him and other MLAs to receive large amounts of money and to discharge their public duties improperly and dishonestly so that the Telangana Government led by TRS party is destabilized.
"They informed that three persons namely Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma of Delhi, one Nanda Kumar and one Simhayaji Swamy of Tirupathi would come to my farmhouse to finalize the deal of joining in BJP by resigning from the TRS party. Therefore, he requested to take necessary legal action against the above persons and the persons behind this conspiracy for offering him a bribe to resign from TRS and also to join in BJP by indulging in unethical and undemocratic ways by offering huge amounts as a bribe," the FIR added.
The raids were conducted on Wednesday after Police received information from TRS MLAs that they were being lured and added that they noticed the presence of the three persons, who were subsequently detained.
"We received information from TRS MLAs that they were being lured, by money, contracts, and posts. We raided the farmhouse and noticed three persons. We will initiate legal action and carry investigation into the luring matter," Cyberabad Commissioner of Police Stephen Raveendra said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has, however, denied the allegations of attempts to poach TRS legislators and said that the entire drama was created by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao due to the fear of a loss in Munugode by-poll.
BJP national vice-president D K Aruna said that BJP has nothing to do with the people arrested in the raid.
"The TRS is creating the story because of fear of defeat in the by-election to the Munugode. BJP has nothing to do with this. The people who are arrested are not of BJP and we have seen them before. We don't know why the people were in their farmhouse and who took them there. The Telangana CM KCR is behind this," she said.