Alleged BJP agents caught bribing TRS MLAs to leave party: Telangana Police
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Hyderabad: The Telangana Police have arrested four people on the allegation of being the BJP agents to bribe the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislatures to quit the party ahead of the Munugode bypoll.
The police are said to have seized a huge amount from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad which was meant to be given to the TRS MLAs for the said purpose during a raid on Wednesday night.
Sources said that it was a tip-off from TRS MLAs upon which the police acted. The Police said that the MLAs claimed they were being lured to quit the party by offering money.
Police said that they have arrested Delhi-based Sateish Sharma, a priest at a temple in Haryana's Faridabad, a seer from Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh; and Nandakumar, a Hyderabad-based businessman, who were present at the farmhouse during the raid.
According to reports, cash to the tune of Rs 15 crore cash was seized from a car at the farmhouse and the accused were in touch with MLAs Pilot Rohith Reddy, B Harshvardhan Reddy, G Balraju, and Rega Kantha Rao.
The accused were said to have been in touch with the MLAs Pilot Rohith Reddy, B Harshvardhan Reddy, G Balraju, and Rega Kantha Rao, and cash to the tune of Rs 15 crore, reportedly meant to the MLAs, was found in a car at the farmhouse.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said that the MLAs told the police that they were offered money, work contracts, and positions to rebel against the ruling party.
The officer added that a probe is on to confirm the allegation made by the MLAs on the accused as being the BJP agents. The TRS MLAs claimed that the alleged agents had offered them Rs 100 crore to each MLA.
Meanwhile, the BJP termed the raid and arrest a drama scripted by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The men had come to Hyderabad with fake identities, said the police chief. Sources suggested that one of them was possibly in the Maharashtra coup in which the Shiv Sena-led coalition collapsed after a key leader, Eknath Shinde, broke away and formed a new government with the BJP.