ACB Special Court here will fix the schedule for the trial of cash-for-vote case involving legislator A. Revanth Reddy and others on Friday.
With this, trial in the one of the widely discussed political scandals in the State would commence nearly six years after it came to light. One of the accused in the case, A. Revanth Reddy, who was MLA from Telugu Desam Party when the case was filed, eventually joined Congress and got elected as Malkajgiri Lok Sabha member.
Fixation of the trial schedule would confirm details of the witnesses and the dates they are likely to be examined. This would follow chief examination and cross examination of the witnesses before commencement of final arguments. On Tuesday, the Special Court framed the charges against Mr. Revanth Reddy, Uday Simha and Sebastian.
The judge read over the charges framed under Section 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act to the trio present in the court. Charges were also framed against them under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 34 of Indian Penal Code. Mr. Reddy and the other two denied the charges.
Already, the court framed charges against Sandra Venkata Veeraiah who was also made one of the accused in the case. In year 2015, sleuths of ACB arrested the then TDP MLA A. Revanth Reddy on charge of offering ₹ 50 lakh bribe to nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson to cast vote in favour of TDP nominee for MLC in Telangana. He was arrested, remanded in judicial custody and later came out on bail.
In separate matter, Justice G. Sri Devi of Telangana High Court adjourned a criminal petition seeking anticipatory bail filed by Bhargav Ram, husband of former AP minister Akhila Priya, to February 26. Mr. Ram is one of the accused in the alleged abduction of a person in connection with a land dispute. Ms. Akhila Priya was already arrested in the same case and was later set free on bail.
