Telangana MLA poaching case: HC issues notices to proposed accused, hearing tomorrow

HYDERABAD, (ANI): Telangana Special Investigative Team (SIT) on Wednesday approached the High Court and moved a lunch motion petition after a special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau cases in Hyderabad rejected the memo to arraign BL Santosh and others as accused.

High Court ordered to issue notices to the proposed accused and listed the matter for hearing on Thursday.

Earlier on Tuesday, ACB rejected the plea of the Cyberabad police seeking to include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh and three others as accused in the case of an alleged attempt to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLAs into the BJP. TRS had approached the police, alleging that the BJP was attempting to poach its MLAs by luring them with money and contracts.

Following this, the Telangana Police arrested three persons Simhayaji Swamy, Ramachandra Bharati, and Nanda Kumar who were found at the farmhouse in Ranga Reddy on October 26 after being informed by the TRS MLAs about the poaching bid, which the leaders alleged was of the BJP. Later, the police filed a memo in the ACB special court at Nampally criminal courts in Hyderabad on November 22, asking for permission to include Santhosh as the fourth accused in the poaching case.

Telangana BJP had later approached the High Court to transfer the TRS MLAs’ poaching case against the party to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to carry out a fair probe into the matter. BJP National General Secretary BL Santosh was also summoned by the Telangana government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged attempts by BJP to poach TRS legislators.

The SIT led by the Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand and supervised by a judge reports to the High Court. The court also ordered that all information regarding the probe would only be submitted to the judge in a sealed envelope by November 29. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had on November 3 released a video of the BJP allegedly trying to poach his party MLAs. KCR accused BJP of destroying all systems in the country, and said, “There are troubling situations in the country. Democracy is being killed in the country. I speak with great pain. I can’t believe that such evil can exist. Unemployment has increased. The value of the rupee has fallen. The BJP has destroyed the country in all fields.”

Later on November 6, Telangana BJP MLA Etela Rajender accused the KCR government of trying to “finish the Opposition” by “purchasing” their legislators. (ANI)