Hyderabad, 28th May 2024: Former Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Radha Kishan Rao has made serious allegations against former Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), claiming that he used the “MLAs poaching” case to distract from an ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation against his daughter, K. Kavitha.
The controversy revolves around the alleged attempt to poach four Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs. In October 2022, three men were arrested at a farmhouse in Hyderabad, accused of offering significant bribes to the MLAs to defect to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The sting operation was orchestrated by the Cyberabad police based on a complaint by BRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy. The police set up hidden cameras and recording devices to capture the meeting, which allegedly included offers of up to Rs 100 crore per MLA along with other incentives【15†source】【17†source】.
Radha Kishan Rao claims that KCR manipulated this situation to shield his daughter from legal trouble. Kavitha has been under investigation by the ED in connection with a money laundering case. By bringing the poaching scandal to the forefront, Rao suggests that KCR aimed to divert public and media attention away from the ED probe【14†source】.
Adding to the complexity, accusations have surfaced regarding illegal phone tapping and surveillance conducted by the state’s intelligence agencies during KCR’s tenure. One of the accused in the poaching case, Nanda Kumar, alleged that his phone was tapped, and the recordings were used to frame him and his associates【14†source】. This has further muddied the waters, leading to multiple legal challenges and the eventual transfer of the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) by the Telangana High Court【16†source】.
These developments have ignited a fierce political debate in Telangana, highlighting the interplay between state politics, law enforcement, and judicial interventions.
