HYDERABAD: In what appears to be the continuance of a see-saw battle between State and Central investigation agencies, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad zone, on Friday summoned BRS Tandur MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy to appear before it on December 19 along with statements of his bank accounts, documents relating to his companies, his and his family members’ movable and immovable assets.
The ED’s action has raised eyebrows as he happens to be the main complainant in the case of the attempt to poach him and three other BRS MLAs in a farmhouse in Moinabad on October 26 allegedly by three emissaries of BJP — Faridabad priest Ramachandra Bharati, pontiff Simhayaji and hotelier Nanda Kumar. They allegedly offered `100 crore to Rohit Reddy and `50 crore each to the remaining three for joining the BJP.
Reacting to ED’s summons, Rohith said he would seek a probe by a sitting judge into how BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar could predict that very soon the Enforcement Directorate would issue a notice to him in connection with the Bengaluru drugs case. In a statement here, he asked: “How did Sanjay know that I will get an ED notice? Let him take a vow at Yadadri that he is clean on this count.
Let him fix a date. How come the ED has not sent notices to the Adanis and Ambanis? Why is it that BJP general secretary BL Santhosh is not cooperating with the investigation into the BRS MLAs’ poaching case?”
The MLA alleged that the ED served notices on him because he had exposed BJP’s conspiracy to poach BRS MLAs. As he had foiled their attempt, they were trying to take it out on him out of spite, he said and added that some middlemen approached him who looked like swamijis on behalf of the BJP and tried to unsettle the Telangana government. The ED issued the notice two days after the court recorded his statement in connection with the Poachgate probe.
Though he was not involved in the drugs case, he was summoned, Rohith said. “I am in no way concerned with the case. I believe issuing the notice is a tactic to unnerve me. I will take legal opinion on the notice and only then will I decide whether to appear before the ED or not on December 19.”