Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court reserved its verdict in a plea by the state government against transferring the MLA poaching case investigation to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation).
In December 2022, an order was passed transferring the ongoing Bharat Rashtra Samithi (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi) MLA poaching case to the CBI from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the state of Telangana vs BJP Telangana scene.
The bench comprising chief justice Ujjal Bhuyan and justice N Tukaramji heard arguments of Supreme Court advocate and senior counsel Dushyant Dave representing the state government on its appeal challenging the transfer.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave upheld that CBI itself functions under the BJP government at the Centre and entrusting the probe against BJP and its leaders with the CBI was irrational.
He further asked for justification and said that discretion must be exercised on some judicial principles.
The advocate argued that the single judge cannot consider the revealing of a public document by the chief minister as leakage by the investigating agency.
The senior counsel further contended that the respondents had failed to show how the press conference held by the chief minister impacted the investigation.
Dave also said BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh had threatened the SIT and officers, who were a part of the probe team after the single judge ordered the transfer of the probe to the CBI.
He further said that Santosh, who sought immunity from arrest was now degrading the court’s authority.
Breifing on the petiiton
The petition challenged an order passed by Justice B Vijaysen Reddy to transfer the probe in the matter to the CBI while noting that the accused were condemned publicly and branded as conspirators by none other than the chief minister of the state K Chandrashekhar Rao and these incidents called into question the fairness of the SIT probe.
The judge had noted that the chief minister himself circulated videos about the accused to important Constitutional functionaries, even before the charge sheet in the case was filed and at the initial stages of the investigation.
“Constitution of SIT under the Government will not alter the situation, more particularly, when an authority none other than the Hon’ble chief minister himself has openly circulated the videos and branded the accused and members of the organised crime as conspirators. The entire episode and turn out of events is something unprecedented and incomprehensible and unhesitatingly, this Court holds that the accused have made out a case for transfer of investigation,” the single-judge held.
After hearing arguments at length, the court directed the state government to submit its written arguments by January 30.
The senior advocate requested the court to keep its final order in abeyance for 15 days irrespective of the verdict in favour or against the government.
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