HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police have started grilling three men caught in the MLAs’ poaching case on Thursday at the ACP office of Rajendra Nagar. The police took the custody of the trio and moved them from their holding cell in Chanchalguda Jail amid tight security.
Sources said Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, a priest from Faridabad in Haryana, Simhayaji, a pontiff from Tirupati, and Nandakumar, the owner of a restaurant in Hyderabad, are being questioned over an alleged attempt to lure four MLAs of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) into joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The investigating officers are reportedly questioning the accused separately in the presence of their lawyers and recording their statements.
The sources said there were alleged discrepancies in the answers given by the trio to some of the questions asked by the cops.
“The police teams have prepared a questionnaire to quiz them about the main conspirator, motive, and source of the money. They are also trying to corroborate their versions with the scientific evidence found at the crime scene. Efforts will be on to retrieve more information from the accused on Friday,” sources said.
The accused were questioned a day after the state government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case following the Telangana High Court lifting the stay on the investigation. The SIT is headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand. Six other police officers are the members of the team.
The three accused were arrested from a farmhouse at Moinabad near Hyderabad on the night of October 26 when they were allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of TRS with offers of huge money. Cyberabad police conducted the raid on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, one of the MLAs. He alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others.
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