MLAs poaching case: Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy's statement recorded

HYDERABAD: The statement of BRS Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy, the complainant in the sensational MLAs' poaching case, was recorded on Tuesday in the 5th Additional Junior Civil Magistrate court, located in the Ranga Reddy district court complex in LB Nagar.

Officials of the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) brought the BRS legislator to the court amid tight security. His statement was recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC. The process for recording the statement of Pilot Rohit Reddy before the magistrate reportedly lasted for over two hours. The MLA is learnt to have narrated to the magistrate the events that unfolded at the Moinabad farmhouse on October 26 in graphic detail.

He also reportedly disclosed the names and details pertaining to all those people who tried to entice him to shift his political loyalties from the his party to the BJP. The Hyderabad police provided a heavy escort for Rohit Reddy to arrive at the court complex as a precautionary measure to pre-empt any untoward incident.

Pilot Rohit Reddy was one of the four TRS (now BRS) MLAs, who were allegedly negotiated with as part of a larger deal to topple the K Chandrashekar Rao government in the state. Based on a tip-off from Rohit Reddy, the Cyberabad police conducted an operation at a farmhouse in Moinabad on October 26 and apprehended three persons – Ramachandra Bharathi, Simhayaji and Nandu Kumar. The three were caught when they were trying to allegedly negotiate the deal with Pilot Rohit Reddy and three other ruling party MLAs.

Later, based on a complaint from Rohit Reddy, the police registered a case and arrested the three accused, who were eventually released on bail after spending a few days at the Chanchalguda Central Prison. The TRS, which is now BRS, has accused the BJP of its involvement in the scandal with the intention of engineering a split in its party and topple its government in the state. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was later constituted by the Telangana government to unravel the deeper secrets hidden in the scandal.

A few others names cropped up, based on the secretly recorded audio and video clips from the infamous farmhouse meeting. BJP National Secretary B L Santhosh and the party's sympathiser from Kerala Thushar Vellappally were among those who were subsequently summoned for questioning by the SIT in Hyderabad. However, the Telangana High Court has granted a stay on the SIT notices to the respondents.