Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court has permitted Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, the prime accused in the 2015 cash-for-vote case, to travel abroad from August 17 to September 10 with a few conditions.
This comes in the wake of a petition before the court seeking interim custody of the Chief Minister’s passport from July 23 to October 23.
Meanwhile, the conditions laid down by the court include a personal bond of Rs.1 lakh with one surety and the CM’s overseas addresses and contact details.
The court also directed him to file an affidavit undertaking that he would return the passport by September 18.
The CM’s petition before the court requested permission to visit the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and China from August 17 to September 10.
Reddy is a prime accused in the case registered in 2015 and was a Telugu Desam Party MLA at the time. The other accused include Bishop Harry Sebastian and R. Uday Simha.
The High Court had earlier directed Revanth Reddy to surrender his passport and cooperate with the investigating agency. It also had directed him to file an application before the ACB court whenever he had to travel abroad.
Reddy is currently in New Delhi, where he is expected to meet Union Ministers.
Case background
On May 31, 2015, Revanth Reddy, then with the TDP, was apprehended by the ACB while allegedly paying a Rs 50 lakh bribe to Elvis Stephenson, a nominated MLA, for supporting TDP nominee Vem Narendar Reddy in the legislative council elections. Apart from Reddy, the ACB had arrested some others.
The ACB had claimed it had collected clinching evidence against the accused in the form of audio/video recordings and recovered the advance amount.
