HC transfers Telangana ‘poaching’ case to CBI, rejects SIT probe

The Telangana high court on Monday handed over a case related to an alleged attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to poach four Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs from a special investigation team (SIT) of the state police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

The Telangana high court on Monday handed over a case related to an alleged attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to poach four Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs from a special investigation team (SIT) of the state police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

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The court, however, kept the implementation of its orders in abeyance till the final copy of the directive is delivered to the state government, which is likely to file a review petition.

Justice B Vijaysen Reddy ordered dissolution of the seven-member SIT, headed by Hyderabad police commissioner CV Anand, and directed it to hand over all details of the probe, including documents and evidence gathered so far, and statements of eyewitnesses, to the federal agency.

The court’s directive came after hearing a petition by BJP state general secretary G Premender Reddy who sought a CBI probe into the case.

On November 9, the Telangana government ordered the setting up of the SIT after three people were arrested by Cyberabad police from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26 while allegedly luring four BRS MLAs into the BJP by offering huge money, posts and contracts.

The four BRS legislators are Pilot Rohit Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, B Harshavardhan Reddy and Rega Kantha Rao.

The arrested people are Ramachandra Bharati from Faridabad, Nanda Kumar from Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy from Tirupati.

Three people, including BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, were also summoned by the SIT for a probe in the case.

In his petition in the high court on October 29, Reddy said the BJP has no faith in the probe by the SIT of Telangana Police and claimed the case is politically-motivated.

“We have brought to the notice of the high court that the SIT is not conducting the investigation impartially and is going only by the directions of the government. It has not taken into consideration the technical aspects of the case. The police had deliberately named the BJP, though it had nothing to do with the case,” senior advocate N Ramachandra Rao, who appeared for the petitioners, told reporters.

State advocate general B S Prasad argued that nothing will change if the case is handed over to CBI.

“The SIT has been probing the case effectively and if the case is handed over to the CBI, the investigation will come back to square one,” he said.

Welcoming the court’s directive, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay said: “The screenplay, direction and story belonged to chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who stage-managed the drama to malign the BJP.”

BRS lawmaker Rohit Reddy said the SIT was doing a perfect job. “In fact, the BJP itself asked the court to entrust the case to either CBI or a SIT. When the state government appointed the SIT, the party opposed it,” he said.

Police had filed a criminal case against the three arrested people on the basis of a complaint by Rohit Reddy at Moinabad police station under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 171-B r/w 171-E 506 r/w 34 (offering bribe for electoral gains) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

The accused were later produced in a local court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases. The court, initially, dismissed the remand of the trio on the grounds that they were not served notices in advance under section 41 of Criminal Procedure Code before being taken into custody.

However, on October 29, the same court sent the accused in judicial remand for 14 days after the high court accepted the remand report of the police.

The trio were lodged in Chanchalguda central prison and were granted bail on December 1.

On November 3, chief minister Rao alleged that the BJP leadership was trying to topple the democratically-elected governments in four opposition-ruled states.

He released video files and other documents, purportedly showing the three accused, who he said belonged to the BJP, talking to the four BRS MLAs and inducing them with various benefits if they joined the party.