4-Day Custody Of Revanth Reddy For ACB

The Special Court for ACB Cases on Friday granted the Telangana State Anti-Corruption Bureau four-day custody of TDP MLA Revanth Reddy arrested in the cash-for-vote case on the eve of the recent Telangana MLC elections.

ACB Public Prosecutor Surender sought five-day custody of the TDP MLA, pleading with the court that they needed to find out the source of the Rs 50 lakhs recovered from the residence of nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson, as also the information about the remaining promised amount of Rs 4.5 crores.

The PP said the ACB also wanted to extract information from other MLAs who were lured with money, too, and so needed to understand the details of the call data of the accused Revanth Reddy.

In response, the judge granted four-day custody of Reddy to the ACB, from Saturday.

The bail plea of the arrested MLA was posted to June 9. When the bail plea came for hearing this morning, the ACB sought time to file a counter. Giving time till June 8, the court deferred its decision for June 9.

Earlier, Revanth Reddy's counsel told the court that his client was arrested after being implicated in a conspiracy.

The TRS government had been targeting his client right from the beginning, he alleged, and brought to the notice of the court the reported comment of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao who had said just before his client's arrest that there would soon be a breaking news.

He also asked why the ACB officials had waited till May 31 when they had claimed that they had information on May 28 itself about the scam.

Contending that secret video-recording cameras had been installed in the room prior to the incident, the defence counsel asked whether any permission was obtained under the Telegraphic Act.

There was also no clarity on the four issues mentioned in the custody petition by the ACB, he contended, and said that it was the responsibility of the ACB to find out where the fourth accused, who is at large, was.

The defence counsel argued there was no need of taking Reddy into custody for interrogation as the ACB had information. (NSS)