Judicial custody of three accused in the horse-trading case of MLAs, TRS had accused BJP

Three people who allegedly tried to 'horse-trade' four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody by a local court in Hyderabad. These arrests were made on Saturday night. Earlier, the Telangana High Court had set aside a trial court order directing the accused in the case to surrender before the police. A Hyderabad court had on October 27 turned down the request to send the three accused on remand.

These people were arrested by the Cyberabad police for allegedly luring four TRS MLAs with money to convert them. The trial court had given this decision on the ground of non-compliance with the procedure for issuing notice before arrest. The government appealed to the High Court against the lower court's decision. The TRS had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to horse-trade some of its MLAs. Following this, the BJP filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On BJP's plea, another High Court judge fixed November 4 for hearing the matter and adjourned the probe till then.

Significantly, on the night of October 26, on the complaint of TRS MLA Rohit Reddy, cases were registered against Ramachandra Bharti alias Satish Sharma, Nand Kumar, and Simhaji Swamy under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. According to the FIR, Rohit Reddy alleged that the accused had offered him Rs 100 crore and in return, he had to leave the TRS and contest the next assembly election as a BJP candidate. After this incident, a round of accusations and counter-accusations started between BJP and TRS.