[ad_1]
Telangana High Court on Tuesday dismissed a writ appeal filed by BJP State unit seeking a direction to further defer the investigation into the case of attempt to poach four TRS MLAs.
Pronouncing order in the appeal plea, a bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the State government to furnish a report on the progress of ongoing investigation into the poaching attempt case in a sealed cover to Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of the HC by November 29. The bench, however, made it clear that the SIT or any of its officials should not reveal details relating to the probe to any official, be it political or executive, and the media as well.
The responsibility of ensuring the probe developments are not disclosed to others would rest with the SIT chief and Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand. Ordering that Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy would monitor the probe by the SIT in the attempt to lure four legislators of the ruling TRS party to join BJP, the bench said the single judge would adjudicate the matter.
Earlier, Supreme Court counsels Vaidyanathan Chidambarish and Dushyant Dave appearing for BJP and Telangana State respectively presented extensive arguments before the bench. Mr. Chidambarish said investigation into the case can be stalled for some more days observing that the cooked-up story of police was damaging reputation of BJP as a national party. The police started panchanama in the case on October 26 around 10 a.m. and completed it the same day within a few hours. However, they got the signatures of the mediators on panchanama the next day.
Moreover, a top official of the Cyberabad police spoke with the media on the day the FIR was issued even before basic investigation was completed, Mr. Chidambarish said. He told the bench that police had left the three accused persons at the farmhouse but ushered the four TRS MLAs to Telangana Chief Minister’s camp office. All this suggested that police were carrying out biased investigation, he said.
Senior counsel of Supreme Court Dushyant Dave argued that the entire episode of the three accused attempting to lure the four TRS MLAs to join BJP by offering ₹ 100 crore each was video recorded with spy cameras. On one hand BJP claimed that the accused did not belong to it and on the other, argued before the court that it had locus standi in seeking deferment of the probe into the case, he said. By making these two contentions, BJP was contradicting its own claims.
The BJP should either accept that the accused belong to it or disown them, he said.
[ad_2]
Source link