9 Feb 2024 11:00 AM GMT
Today (on February 09), the Supreme Court issued a notice (returnable after four weeks) in a petition seeking transfer of the impending trial in the 2015 cash-for-votes against the present Chief Minister of Telangana, A Revanth Reddy.
The matter was placed before Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta.
Underscoring the need for a free and fair trial, the petition has prayed for transferring the case to Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Pertinently, the instant petition was filed by former ministers, including the former deputy Chief Minister. Senior advocates Siddarth Dave and Dama Seshadri Naidu appeared for the petitioners, and the petition was filed through Advocate-On-Record P. Mohit Rao.
The two cases against which the transfer was sought are The State of Telangana through Addl. Superintendent of Police Vs. A. Revanth Reddy & Ors. and The State of Telangana through Addl. Superintendent of Police Vs. Sandra Venkata Veeraiah. The cases are pending for trial before a Special judge in Telangana.
In the petition, it has been alleged that Reddy offered a bribe of Rs. 50 Lakhs as advance to MLA Elvis Stephenson/ de facto Complainant. Stephenson was allegedly asked to either abstain from voting or to vote in favor of the Telugu Desam Party during the 2015 elections to the Telangana MLC. As per the petitioners, Reddy was directed by his former boss, Nara Chandra Babu Naidu (former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh), to offer such a bribe.
It is further alleged that the accused persons were caught red-handed in broad daylight by the Anti-corruption Bureau. However, considering that the prime accused is Telangana's present Chief and Home Minister, a transfer to an independent State is being prayed to ensure a fair trial.
Besides, petitioners also pointed out that there are 88 pending cases against him, and he has also threatened the senior police officials belonging to the State.
“The Accused No.1 on many occasions threatened the senior police officials belonging to the State of Telangana and now under the capacity of Chief and Home Minister for the State of Telangana the Accused No.1 is much more capable to transfer the police officials who are sincere, diligent and efficient in discharging their official duties to make sure that CC. No. 15 of 2016 and CC. No. 5 of 2017 ends in acquittal to escape from the clutches of the Criminal Case pending before the Hon'ble Principal Special Judge for Trail of SPE & ACB Cases at Hyderabad.”
In view of this, the petitioners have also submitted that the accused, being in such a high official position, 'can directly influence' the complainant and the officials. Highlighting that the accused successfully obtained a stay, the petitioners pleaded that this has hampered the trial since 2015.
“ Accused were successful in obtaining stay before this Hon'ble Court and in the Courts below hampering the trial since 2015.The pattern of filing the frivolous Applications, Petitions by the Accused one after the other clearly indicates that the Accused have indulged in prolonging the trial on one pretext or the other and have failed in all their attempts but succeeded in deferring the Trial till date.,” the petition added.
Based on this above projection, the petitioners pleaded for a transfer of trial to the neighboring state, Madhya Pradesh.
Case Title: Guntakandla Jagadish Reddy and ors v. State of Telangana and ors., Diary No. 4895-2024