Cash for MLAs: Telangana police serve summons to Tushar Vellapally in Alappuzha

As Vellapally was away, his secretary signed and accepted the summons.

President of Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), Vellapally created headlines when Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao named him as one of the key conspirators behind the Cash for MLAs case, in which the BJP allegedly sought to “buy” four of his party’s MLAs for a total of ₹250 crore.

According to KCR, the agents who met the four TRS MLAs were in constant touch with Vellapally.

An influential politician in Kerala, Tushar Vellapally is the son of prominent Ezhava community leader and liquor baron Vellapally Natesan, who also holds position of general secretary of the powerful Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP).

What the Telangana team did

Apart from serving him summons, the police team from Telangana also visited Kollam and Alappuzha, where Vellapally heads several business establishments and socio-cultural organisations.

On Monday, the team also visited Eloor near Kochi to interrogate two temple priests who were said to have links with Ramachandra Bharathi, the Keralite priest from Faridabad who is one the three alleged BJP emissaries who approached the TRS MLAs.

Tushar Vellapally

The move was foiled after the arrest of Bharati, also known as Satish Sharma, Tirupati-based priest Simha Yajulu and Hyderabad-based businessman Nanda Kumar.

Audio and video evidence of the poaching bid was circulated at a press meeting by Chief Minister KCR.

Vellapally has denied any role in the Cash for MLAs case and has challenged the Telangana chief minister to prove the allegations against him.

Sources within the BDJS, however, confirmed that Vellapally was evading arrest.

A staunch ally of the BJP, Vellapally contested from the Wayanad constituency in the Lok Sabha election of 2019 against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and lost his deposit.

A day after the revelation by KCR, Vellapally told South First that he had no role in the poaching case and his focus was only his businesses and political aspirations.

In 2019, he was arrested in UAE in a multi-crore cheque-bouncing case.

He was, however, released in the case after the intervention of Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan and NRI businessman Yusuf Ali.