Telangana High Court stays probe in 'MLAs poaching' case

Hyderabad, Oct 29:  The Telangana High Court on Saturday stayed the ongoing investigation into 'MLAs poaching' case till further orders.

A single judge bench of the court passed the interim orders on a petition by the BJP seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged attempt to buy four MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)

Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy asked the state government and other respondents to file the counter by November 4.

Petitioner's counsel Rachna Reddy said the court deferred the investigation temporarily until further orders of the court.

She said since the TRS leaders were taking BJP's name in the case without prima facie or circumstantial evidence, the petitioner approached the High Court seeking transfer of the case to CBI for an impartial investigation.

The judge made it clear that his order is only for a few days and hence not in conflict with the order passed by another single judge allowing the remand of the accused.

Earlier, Justice S. Sumalatha set aside the order of a lower court rejecting remand for the three accused. The judge asked the lower court to remand the accused to judicial custody upon their production by the police.

Justice Chillakur Sumalatha passed the orders on a criminal revision petition filed by the Cyberabad police seeking to set aside the ACB special court judge order rejecting remand of the accused.

The First Additional Special Judge for SPE and ACB Cases had rejected the remand application when the accused were presented before him late on Thursday night. The judge observed that the police failed to comply with the mandatory procedure of issuing notices to the accused under section 41A of Criminal Procedure Code.

Challenging this order, the Cyberabad police had approached the High Court. The High Court judge observed the lower court did not take into consideration Supreme Court judgment about notices under section 41 of CrPC. The judge noted that if the investigating officer feels that there is no need for issuing notice, he can act accordingly.

A couple of hours after this order, Cyberabad police arrested Ramachandra Bharathi alias Satish Sharma, Kore Nanda Kumar alias Nandu and Simhayaji.

The three accused, allegedly to be BJP agents, were arrested by the police from a farmhouse at Moinabad near Hyderabad on the night of October 26 when they were allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of TRS with offers of huge money.

Cyberabad police conducted the raid on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, one of the MLAs. He alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others.

The accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act.