Plea before Supreme Court to transfer trial in 2015 cash-for-votes case against CM Revanth Reddy out of Telangana

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on a plea to transfer the trial in the 2015 cash-for-votes scam against incumbent Chief Minister of Telangana, A Revanth Reddy, to a trial court outside Telangana [Guntakandla Jagadish Reddy and ors v. State of Telangana and ors]..A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta issued notice today, returnable by four weeks, in the petition which has suggested that the trial be transferred to the neighbouring States of Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh. .The transfer petition raises concern that a fair trial against Reddy would not be possible within Telangana given his present status as the State's Chief Minister.The petition has been filed by four lawmakers belonging to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party - MLAs Guntakandla Jagadish Reddy and Kalvakuntla Sanjay and Members of the Legislative Council (MLC), Satyavathi Rathod and Mohd. Mahmood Ali..The petitioners have sought transfer of the trial in two connected corruption cases, namely State of Telangana v. A Revanth Reddy & Ors and State of Telangana v. Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, both of which are presently pending before a trial court in Hyderabad..The cases involve allegations that in 2015, Reddy offered ₹50 lakh as an advance on a multi-crore bribe to a nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson for his vote in the 2015 elections to the Telangana MLC. The petitioners added that the said advance was allegedly paid on the directions of Reddy's "former boss" and present Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu.It is alleged that the bribe was paid to persuade Stephenson from either abstaining from casting his vote for MLC elections or to vote in favour of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), to which party Reddy belonged in 2015 before his eventual shift to the Indian National Congress (INC) party in 2017.The petitioners added that Reddy and other persons accused in this cash-for-votes scam were caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Hyderabad city police in 2015, after which the corruption cases were registered in the matter on a complaint by Stephenson..However, the petitioners have now asserted that a fair trial in these cases would not be possible in Telangana since the prime accused Revanth Reddy is presently the Chief Minister of the State as well as its Home Minister. As such, the Directorate of Prosecution of the ACB is now "answerable and directly under the control" of Reddy, the plea states. It is also highlighted that Reddy presently has "88 pending cases" against him before various courts in Telangana which, the petition says, "clearly indicates that he has a rich criminal background."The petitioners further claim that Reddy has threatened senior police officers in Telangana on many occasions and is more than capable of transferring sincere police officials to ensure that the corruption case against him ends in an acquittal. Moreover, the accused persons have tried to file several applications over the years on one pretext or the other to delay the trial in the 2015 case, it was claimed. .Therefore, the petitioners have now urged the Court to transfer the trial in cash-for-votes scam out of Telangana to a neighbouring State like Madhya Pradesh. Senior Advocates Siddarth Dave and Dama Seshadri Naidu represented the petitioners before the Supreme Court. The petition was filed through advocate P Mohith Rao.