TRS MLAs' poaching: Explosive audio clips of Rohit Reddy-deal brokers' phone calls leaked

HYDERABAD: Amid BJP's strong denial of its role in the failed attempt to poach four TRS MLAs recently at a Moinabad farmhouse, two explosive audio, purportedly featuring phone conversations of Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy with Ramachandra Bharti and Simhayaji, the accused in the case, have come to the fore, causing tremors all across.

The TRS leaders have been claiming in the last few days that there was enough evidence to prove the complicity of a few high-profile names of the BJP in the scandal, aimed at engineering a defection of some TRS legislators. Interestingly, the explosive audio clips were leaked at a time when BJP's Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay went to Yadadri to swear in front of the presiding deity of the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple there that the BJP had no involvement in the bribery scandal, allegedly aimed at luring the TRS MLAs into the BJP fold. Bandi Sanjay has indeed challenged TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) to emulate him by swearing in the name of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy. The BJP Telangana chief's reaction to the explosive audio leak was not immediately known.

In the audio clips that were leaked so far, two of the brokers – Ramachandra Bharti and Simhayaji – were heard negotiating the poaching deal threadbare with Pilot Rohit Reddy. In the first leaked audio clip, Ramachandra Bharti was heard promising that he would seal the deal after discussing with one B L Santhosh. He referred to Santhosh as the 'go-to man in the BJP for any kind of deal-making'.

The two leaked audio clips, which have already caused ripples in the political circles across the country, are only believed to be the first of a series of more explosive evidence. A third audio clip is also expected to be leaked on Friday, only to be followed by many more in a torrent of indisputable evidence in the sensational bribery scandal. The second audio clip is also of a phone conversation where another accused Simhayaji is heard discussing the nitty-gritties of the deal with Rohit Reddy. The audio clips also give a broader sense of the deal containing details like alleged bribe amount, who would deliver the money and how it would be handed over to the TRS MLAs.