TRS MLAs poaching case: HC extends stay on summons to Santhosh

The high court, on November 25, had granted a stay on the summons issued to the BJP leader on November 23 under section 41-A of Code of Criminal Procedure Code till December 5 on the ground that they had not fulfilled the requirements under the section.

The Telangana high court on Friday extended its stay by eight more days on notices served to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh by a special investigation team in a case related to alleged attempts to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs in October.

The high court, on November 25, had granted a stay on the summons issued to the BJP leader on November 23 under section 41-A of Code of Criminal Procedure Code till December 5 on the ground that they had not fulfilled the requirements under the section.

Section 41-A of CrPC says any police officer may without an order from a magistrate and without a warrant, arrest any person who has been concerned in any cognizable offence, or against whom a reasonable complaint has been made, or credible information has been received, or a reasonable suspicion exists, of his having been so concerned.

On Monday, the court extended the period of the stay till December 13 and directed the SIT not to take any action against Santhosh till further orders. It fixed December 13 as the next date of hearing.

Santhosh, who had filed a quash petition in the high court on November 25, argued the notice did not mention on what grounds he was being summoned.

“The court stayed the notice, citing lack of essential ingredients, pointing out that a notice under section 41-A would have to state on what evidence or suspicion or what grounds the person was being summoned. The SIT did not mention any of these in the notice,” he said.

The court, meanwhile, also granted a similar relief to Dr Kottilil Narayan Jaggu alias Jaggu Swamy, a doctor at Amrutha Institute of Medical Sciences in Kerala’s Ernakulam, who is also a suspect in the case. The court ordered that the summons issued to him by the SIT be stayed till December 13.

Santhosh and three others – Dr Jaggu in Ernakulam, Tushar Vellapally, and senior advocate from Karimnagar, B Srinivas – were issued notices by the SIT for questioning in the purported poaching case.

The four suspects were summoned after a probe suggested they were in contact with three people who were arrested from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26 while allegedly luring four TRS MLAs into the BJP by offering huge money, posts and contracts.

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

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

The Telangana government on November 9 ordered the setting up of a seven-member SIT to probe the matter. Of the four suspects who were issued notices, only Srinivas appeared before the SIT on November 21 and 22 for questioning.