MLAs poaching case: Accused Simhayaji released on bail

Hyderabad: An accused in the TRS MLA poaching case, Simhayaji Swamy was on Wednesday morning released on bail after spending over 40 days in judicial custody in Chanchalguda central jail.

Simhayaji was arrested by Hyderabad police on October 26 and two others at a farmhouse in Ranga Reddy on charges of attempting to poach MLAs from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Earlier, the 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 along with Ramachandra Bharati, 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 belonged to the BJP.

Telangana BJP had later approached the High Court to transfer 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.