JOIN USACB likely to serve notice on TDP chief
Political circles here are abuzz with talks that the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is all set to serve notice on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the cash-for-vote scam.
Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party is accused of trying to bribe a nominated legislator of Telangana Assembly Elvis Stephenson to vote in favour of the party in the recent elections to the Legislative Council.
The ACB is likely to issue a notice to Naidu, asking him to appear for a voice test to establish the veracity of an audio tape purportedly containing his conversation with Stephenson and promising him that all “commitments would be honoured.”
A flurry of activity at the highest level in both the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday triggered speculation that an ACB notice to Naidu was imminent. Telangana ACB chief A K Khan met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to discuss the issue.
Later, Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma and Commissioner of Police Mahender Reddy met Governor E S L Narasimhan. The Telangana Police have doubled protection at the State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Red Hills where 22 audio samples of the alleged conversation between Naidu and Stephenson and the main accused Revanth Reddy and others were being examined.
Sources say that the DGP has complained about the presence of AP Special Police in Hyderabad and offered to withdraw protection to all VIPs of the neighbouring state. The AP government after the phone tapping issue has replaced all the Telangana Police personnel from security duties at Naidu’s home, secretariat and elsewhere with men from APSP (Kurnool) battalion.