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TRS MLAs poaching: SC refuses to stall SIT probe, lifts court-monitoring order
Refusing to intervene in the judgement issued by the state high court on continuing the investigation by the SIT, the Supreme Court bench, however, said there was no need for monitoring of the probe by a single judge of the high court.
The Supreme Court on Monday set aside an order issued by the Telangana high court calling for a court-monitored investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana police into the alleged attempt to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLAs into the Bharatiya Janata Party.
A division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath, which was hearing a petition by the three accused — Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji — seeking to quash the SIT probe into the alleged poaching case, ruled that the investigation should go on without any restrictions.
Refusing to intervene in the judgement issued by the state high court on continuing the investigation by the SIT, the Supreme Court bench, however, said there was no need for monitoring of the probe by a single judge of the high court.
The bench suggested that the SIT investigation should be allowed freely and fairly without any restrictions and conditions. It directed the single judge bench of the high court to dispose of all the pending petitions before it in this case within four weeks.
The Supreme Court also dismissed the petitions of the three accused seeking bail in the case. It said that the accused could file a review petition before the high court for the bail.
The three accused were detained by the Cyberabad police at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26, while they were allegedly trying to poach four TRS MLAs – Pilot Rohit Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, Rega Kantha Rao and B Harshavardhan Reddy.
A week later, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had released video tapes, showing purported conversation between the three accused and the TRS MLAs, in which the accused were offering money and other benefits, including contracts and key posts. The videos also showed Ramachandra Bharati claiming that he had got clearance from the highest people in the party to lure the TRS MLAs.
On November 9, the state government constituted a seven-member SIT to probe the case, which was challenged by the BJP in the Telangana high court, seeking a CBI probe instead. On November 15, the high court struck down the BJP petition and said that the SIT could continue the probe but under the monitoring of a single sitting judge of the high court.
On November 16, the SIT issued summons to four people, including BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, an advocate from Karimnagar B Srinivas, founder-president of Bharat Dharmika Jana Sena of Kerala Tushar Vellapally and a doctor at Mata Amrutanandamayi Ashram in Kerala Dr Jaggu Swamy, whose names surfaced during the SIT investigation.
They were asked to appear before the investigating officer of SIT in Hyderabad on Monday. On November 18, the BJP moved the high court again, challenging the summons, but on Saturday, the court said Santosh should cooperate with the investigation but he should not be arrested.
On Monday, only Srinivas turned up for questioning, while the remaining thee did not appear before the SIT on the ground that they did not receive the summons directly from the SIT authorities, a police official privy to the information said.
Srinivas appeared before the SIT at its Banjara Hills office and was subject to intense grilling till evening. During the probe, the SIT authorities found that it was Srinivas, believed to be a close relative of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay, who had booked the air ticket for Simhayaji, one of the accused in the case, on October 26 from Tirupati to Hyderabad.
