ED charge-sheets Cong MP Revanth Reddy in 'money-laundering' case

Naveen S Garewal

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Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, May 27

Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against Telangana Congress working president and Member Parliament from Malkajgiri constituency A Revanth Reddy, a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLA Venkata Veeraiah and others in connection with a money-laundering probe that came to be known as “cash-for-vote scam” in 2015.

The ED confirmed that it had filed a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Hyderabad’s Nampally. Those named in the complaint apart from Reddy and Veeraiah (MLA Sathupally constituency) were Bishop Harry Sebastian, Rudra Sivakumar Uday Simha, Mathaiah Jerusalem, and Vem Krishna Keerthan.

The ED, in a statement said its probe had established that the accused “committed the scheduled offence as well as the offense of money laundering by dealing with the bribe money which is nothing but proceeds of crime as per the PMLA”.

“Thus, the ED has filed a prosecution complaint against the above named accused persons with a prayer to hold a trial for the offence of money laundering,” it said. Reddy was a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) then but joined Congress later.

In 2015 the state’s anti-corruption bureau had registered a complaint on charges that Elvis Stephenson (a nominated MLA representing the Anglo-Indian community in the Telangana Assembly) was lured with a bribe of Rs 50 lakh in cash by the TDP that wanted him to either abstain from voting or cast his franchise in favour of TDP candidate Vem Narendra Reddy in the MLC election, which was to be held on June 1, 2015.

The ED stated that “The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had arrested the accused during their trap proceedings and filed a charge sheet after investigation…… In pursuance of their conspiracy, the accused had contacted Elvis Stephenson and offered him a bribe of Rs 5 crore. Elvis Stephenson made a complaint to the ACB police and, a trap was laid and his encounters with the accused were secretly audio-video recorded”.

The agency claimed its probe has established that the accused “committed the scheduled offence as well as the offense of money laundering by dealing with the bribe money which is nothing but proceeds of crime as per the PMLA”.