The Supreme Court asked Telangana police on Friday not to continue their investigation into the alleged criminal conspiracy behind the BJP’s alleged attempt to poach BRS MLAs.
The development comes after the apex court earlier this week directed the CBI not to begin its investigation in accordance with the Telangana High Court direction.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing the Telangana Police, contended before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M.M. Sundresh that on the last date of hearing on March 13, the matter was mentioned for hearing as no formal notice was issued. The apex court stated the Telangana Police can’t continue with its probe, while issuing notice to the central agency, the BJP and others.
On March 13, the Supreme Court ordered the CBI to halt its investigation into an alleged criminal conspiracy behind an attempt by the BJP to poach BRS MLAs, while hearing an appeal filed by the Telangana Police against the high court’s order in the matter.
The top court orally observed orally that the CBI should not proceed with the case, while scheduling a hearing in July.
Dave was vehemently opposed to the probe being transferred to the CBI. The Supreme Court was informed that the case materials had not yet been turned over to the central agency. The bench stated it is making it very clear that the CBI probe should not be continued while the matter is sub-judice.
Dave had previously argued that transferring the case to the CBI, which was allegedly under the control of the Centre, would have serious consequences. He had submitted that it would go to the heart of democracy.
On February 6, a division bench of the Telangana High Court upheld an earlier order by a single judge on December 26, 2022, transferring the case to the CBI. The Telangana Police had petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn this order.
The petition argued that the high court failed to recognise that the CBI works directly for the Centre and is overseen by the Prime Minister’s office and the Home Ministry. The state government argued that the involvement of some top BJP leaders to poach its four MLAs, was an attempt to topple the government.
The plea said: “The Bharatiya Janata Party is in power in the Central government and the allegations in the FIR are squarely and directly against the said party adopting illegal and criminal steps and methods to destabilize the Government of Telangana, the Hon’ble High Court therefore could not have entrusted the investigation to CBI in any case.”
“The High Court has unnecessarily drawn conclusion that release of the CD by the Chief Minister on November 3, 2022 amounted to interference with the investigation and therefore concluded that investigation was not fair and violated the rights of accused for fair investigation.”
Three persons – Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, named as accused – have already been given bail.
According to the FIR, MLA Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused in October last year, offered him Rs 100 crore for leaving the BRS. It was also said that they asked Reddy to bring some more BRS MLAs by offering Rs 50 crore each to join the BJP.
In November last year, the state government had formed an SIT, comprised of state police officers to investigate the matter.
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