Telangana MLAs poaching case: Kerala HC grants interim protection from arrest to 3 persons

The court granted them interim protection from arrest till the matter would be taken up for consideration on December 5.

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to three persons who are co-workers of a person facing probe in the case of alleged conspiracy to poach TRS MLAs in Telangana.

The three persons, all employees of a private hospital here, moved the High Court seeking bail, anticipating their arrest by Telangana police in the case for allegedly being close to one Jaggu Swami, who is facing the probe in the sensational case.

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Considering the plea, the court observed that the petitioners were not arraigned as accused so far by the police.

However, the court granted them interim protection from arrest till the matter would be taken up for consideration on December 5.

They moved the court after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana police served them notices under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) seeking their appearance before them at its headquarter in Hyderabad.

In their plea, the trio have contended that they had no links with any sort of political conspiracy in Telangana.

Senior BJP leader B L Santhosh and three others including two persons from Kerala — Jaggu Swami and Thushar Vellapally — besides one B Srinivas, are facing probe by the SIT in the case of alleged conspiracy to poach four TRS MLAs.

Three persons — Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy — were named as accused in the case after a complaint was lodged by TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, among four legislators, against them on October 26.

As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Telangana Assembly election.
Earlier, the Telangana SIT had issued notices to Santhosh and the two persons from Kerala to appear before it for questioning. However, they did not turn up before the investigation panel. Srinivas, who was also summoned by the SIT, had appeared before it.