It was a day of interrogations and intense meetings as the cash-for-vote scam gained momentum in the joint capital of Hyderabad.

Nominated legislator Elvis Stephenson, who reportedly holds the mobile recording of the voice allegedly of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and to whom A Revanth Reddy reportedly offered ₹50 lakh, deposed before the judge in the Nampally court along with his daughter Jessica.

The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau is pinning big hopes on his statements to proceed in the case. Today, it also questioned TDP legislator V Narender Reddy and posted a notice on the residence of another, S Venkata Veeriah, to appear before 5 pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, Revanth Reddy has to continue to spend time in Cherlapally Jail as his bail application has been deferred to June 24. Speculation was rife that the ACB would send out notices to more legislators and political bigwigs.

In AP, the government handed over the cases filed by Dalit Christian leader J Mathais against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) to the CID to investigate and constituted an SIT headed by IPS officer Iqbal.

KCR again met joint Governor ESL Narasimhan and briefed him about the latest developments. Naidu, meanwhile, held a Cabinet meeting, where the different aspect of the scam and phone tapping were discussed along with a possible strategy to counter the charges.

Minister Atchannaidu told newspersons that KCR, with TRS leaders and the police, is playing mind games. “It’s just a conspiracy and we have evidence of phone tapping on which the Telangana government has not responded for two days,” he said.

A group of TDP legislators from Telangana complained to the ACB today that MLAs are being coerced, lured, and told that their constituencies would not be developed, if they don't join the TRS.

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