Issue fresh notice to Santhosh in poaching case: HC to SIT

The high court , however, rejected the plea of state advocate general B R Prasad seeking to lift the stay on Santosh’s arrest, in case he doesn’t turn up before the SIT. It asked the advocate general to file a counter on November 29 and posted the case for further hearing on November 30.

Telangana high court on Wednesday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police to serve fresh summons to Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh asking him to appear before the investigation officer for questioning in the case related to an alleged attempt to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLAs.

BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh was issued notice by the SIT on November 16 for questioning in the case related to an alleged attempt to poach four TRS MLAs. Santosh expressed his inability to attend the inquiry as he was travelling. (HT Archives)

A high court bench headed by justice B Vijaysen Reddy passed the orders asking the SIT authorities to send fresh notices to Santhosh through e-mail and WhatsApp under Section 41-A of the Criminal Procedure Code with a specific date on which he should appear before the investigation officer.

The high court bench, however, rejected the plea of state advocate general B R Prasad seeking to lift the stay on Santhosh’s arrest, in case he doesn’t turn up before the SIT for questioning again. It asked the advocate general to file a counter on November 29 and posted the case for further hearing on November 30.

The advocate general reminded the high court of the earlier notice served, under Section 41-A of CrPC, to Santhosh through Delhi police at his office on November 20. Santhosh, however, did not appear before the investigating officer for questioning on November 21. The BJP leader expressed his inability to attend the inquiry as he was travelling.

The judge asked the petitioner – G Premender Reddy of the Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party – to ensure that Santhosh appears before the SIT as per the notice.

Santhosh, along with three others, including a doctor with Amrutha Institute of Medical Sciences in Ernakulam, Dr Kottilil Narayan Jaggu alias Jaggu Swamy, founder-president of Bharat Dharmika Jana Sena of Kerala, Tushar Vellapally, and senior advocate from Karimnagar, B Srinivas, were issued notices by the SIT on November 16 for questioning.

Of them, only Srinivas appeared before the SIT on November 21 and 22 for questioning and the remaining three did not take the notices. The SIT issued lookout notices on Jaggu Swamy to know his whereabouts.

The four suspects were summoned by the SIT, as the investigation revealed that they were in contact with the three accused – Ramachandra Bharati from Faridabad, Nanda Kumar from Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy from Tirupati.

The accused were arrested from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26, while they were allegedly luring the four TRS MLAs, Pilot Rohit Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, B Harshavardhan Reddy and Rega Kantha Rao, into the BJP by offering huge money, besides posts and contracts.

Meanwhile, the Banjara Hills police on Wednesday booked a case against Ramachandra Bharati for allegedly holding a passport under a pseudonym.

A police official privy to the investigation said it was revealed during the probe that Bharati had obtained a passport in the name of Kumar Sharma of Karnataka. The SIT officials had found the copy of the passport in the laptop and iPhone allegedly belonging to Bharati.

The Banjara Hills police had already booked a case against him for possessing multiple PAN, Aadhaar cards and driving licences.