TRS MLAs poaching case: High Court dismisses BJP plea for CBI probe

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday dismissed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s appeal for a CBI investigation into the MLA poaching case, and at the same time, clarified that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand could go ahead with the investigation. However, the two-judge panel comprising Chief Justice Ujjal […]

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday dismissed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s appeal for a CBI investigation into the MLA poaching case, and at the same time, clarified that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand could go ahead with the investigation.

However, the two-judge panel comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy imposed certain conditions on the investigation. The SIT will have to submit its report on progress of investigation to the single judge of the High court in a sealed cover on November 29 and should not disclose the progress to any authority, either executive or political.

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The panel also said there should be no selective leakage of the investigation or evidentiary material and said Anand would be responsible for scrupulously following the directions without any leakage of reports to authorities or media. The panel said the single judge would monitor the investigation and decide the writ petition before him by perusing the material submitted to court by the SIT.

It may be recalled the single judge of the High Court had initially granted a stay on the police investigation. However, observing that serious issues of public interest are involved and that investigation could not be stayed indefinitely, the judge lifted the stay. The BJP had moved an appeal against lifting the stay order as well.

Earlier, senior counsels Vaidyanathan Chitambaram and Dushayant Dave, representing the BJP and the State government respectively, exchanged arguments for about two hours. Vaidyanathan argued that the not extending stay would make their case infructuous as their prayer before the court was only to conduct fair investigation. He said if the police were permitted to go ahead with the investigation, their case would not survive.

Alleging that the police department had acted hand in glove with the TRS government in tarnishing the image of the BJP, he said the BJP being a national party running the union government, when allegations are levelled against it in the FIR, it had a right to seek a fair and independent enquiry.

Senior Counsel Dushyant Dave on the other hand pointed out how the BJP was creating disturbance in different States by resorting to defection of elected representatives from other parties to topple rival political parties. “Being a responsible party, you come to help culprits, why are you standing with the strangers?” Dave questioned the BJP.

There is voluminous incriminating material against the accused, the BJP doesn’t even want to investigate the same when the other party representatives across the country face CBI, ED and IT agencies, he pointed out.

Speaking for the panel, the Chief Justice told the open court that he had received some material pertaining to the case in the name of the TRS President.

However, the panel stated the case involves serious political amifications and expressed its view that investigation should be done in a fair and professional manner. It held it would not be appropriate for a writ court to stop investigation in a crime of this nature. Accordingly the panel disposed the case.