Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Saturday stayed the investigation into the TRS MLAs poaching case until November 4 and directed the government to file a counter.
A single-judge bench of the court passed the interim orders on a petition by the BJP seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged attempt to buy four MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
The court while dealing with the writ petition has found discrepancies in the panchanama report in which the officer who conducted the panchanama, signed it and mentioned the date as October 27, whereas it was recorded on October 26.
The judge also pointed out that Police Commissioner Cyberabad has given information to the media immediately after the recovery of the materials from the accused.
Though Advocate General of Telangana BS Prasad has appeared for the government but the court said there is no need for the CBI and SIT probe since the case is being investigated by the concerned police.
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’s order rejecting the 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 the Criminal Procedure Code.
Challenging this order, the Cyberabad police approached the High Court. The High Court judge observed the lower court did not take into consideration the 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 the Prevention of Corruption Act.
(The story has been edited with inputs from IANS.)
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