In a significant political development, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has disclosed the call data records of the three accused who were allegedly part of a nationwide clique that had been on a ‘poaching’ spree of MLAs in various State Governments.
The call data is retrieved from the phones of three accused in the recent attempt to buy out four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now called Bharat Rashtra Samithi) legislators.
Addressing a late evening press conference on Thursday, the Chief Minister alleged that the call data records from 2015 and information from the seized laptops would spill the beans about the poachings and defections happening in the country in the last eight years.
“All the information, including the videos that captured the statements by the accused in the recent poaching incident in Telangana have been sent to the Chief Justice of India, Chief Justices of all High Courts, Chief Ministers, heads of political parties, law-enforcement agencies and media houses,” he said.
In public interest
“We are releasing the information in the interest of the public. It (the information) is in public domain now. We are appealing the judiciary and democrats to discuss and take measures to save democracy in the country,” he said. “Efforts to shamelessly buy out MLAs will cause severe damage to democracy,” he said.
Three persons had approached TRS legislator Rohit Reddy recently and allegedly offered him ₹100 crore to shift loyalties to the BJP. They also asked him to rope in three other MLAs. The three persons have been remanded to judicial custody.
Condemning the attempts to destabilise State governments ruled by the NDA Government, he said that the Modi Government is trying to dethrone State governments in the last eight years.
Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for openly declaring that TMC MLAs were in touch with him recently, he said thousands of crores were being spent for horse trading