EC seeks documents related to 'cash-for-vote' scam

HYDERABAD: The Election Commission (EC) has sought certain documents pertaining to the 'cash-for-vote' scam involving arrested TDP MLA A Revanth Reddy, a case which has triggered a war of words between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governments.

The EC, which wanted the Telangana Government to probe the scam "vigorously" and "take it to its logical end", has filed a memo in a Special ACB Court here, seeking documents filed by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is investigating the case, so far.

"...All documents that are filed by ACB are required to be maintained in the file of the EC too. Hence, we approached the court...we have to get the documents from the court (now)...," a senior EC official said.

Earlier, Telangana's nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson had lodged a complaint with ACB alleging he was offered Rs 5 crore by Revanth to vote in favour of a Telugu Desam MLC nominee in the June 1 Telangana Legislative Council polls.

Revanth along with Bishop Harry Sebastian and R Uday Simhaon were arrested by ACB on May 31, while they were allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 50 lakh as advance to Stephenson. The trio is at present under judicial custody.

The anti-graft agency then said it had collected "clinching" evidence in the form of audio/video recordings and recovered the bribe amount.

Electronic devices, including phones containing a few audio clips, video footage relating to the case besides a CPU and a hard disk, were seized in course of investigation and submitted in the court. They were sent for forensic analysis to establish their authenticity and a report is awaited.

Meanwhile, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) here yesterday furnished the images of the originals of the audio- video recordings before the court and the ACB, filed a memo in the court seeking their possession. "It (images) are required for the purpose of investigation," a senior ACB officer said.

Meanwhile, the bail petition of Revanth and two other accused will come up for hearing tomorrow in the Hyderabad High Court