Telangana HC says no arrest of BL Santosh till orders, asks him to cooperate with SIT

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court issued orders on Saturday, directing the Special Investigation Team probing the MLA poaching case not to arrest BJP national general secretary BL Santosh. It also asked Santosh to cooperate with the conditions imposed by the SIT under the Section 41-A notice that it had served upon him earlier this week. […]

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court issued orders on Saturday, directing the Special Investigation Team probing the MLA poaching case not to arrest BJP national general secretary BL Santosh. It also asked Santosh to cooperate with the conditions imposed by the SIT under the Section 41-A notice that it had served upon him earlier this week.

Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, at the same time held that the Section 41A notice issued to Santhosh by the SIT was valid, though there was no need of any apprehension of arrest since when a notice under Section 41A was issued, the arrest of a person was not required.

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The judge was hearing a petition filed by BJP Telangana secretary G Premendar Reddy, challenging the issuance of the notice to Santosh. The BJP contended that in contempt of orders of the High Court Division Bench, the notices were leaked to the media and Santhosh was trying to be implicated illegally.

However, Advocate General BS Prasad argued that the involvement of Santhosh was suspected and needed to be investigated, for which the notice was issued. The State Government had sought cooperation of the Delhi Police in this regard as well, though the Delhi Police refused assistance citing local body elections.

With the BJP arguing that every step of the investigation had to be informed to the High Court as per the Division Bench order, Justice Reddy directed that the clarification should be sought from the Division Bench itself. Directing Santhosh to cooperate with the SIT authorities as directed under the Section 41A notice, the judge adjourned the case to November 22 for further hearing.