BRS MLAs Poaching Case : Telangana Government Approaches Supreme Court Against HC Order Transferring Probe To CBI

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the State of Telangana, mentioned before the Supreme Court a petition challenging the Telangana High Court's order transferring the probe into a case related to the alleged attempts to poach 4 MLAs of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi), to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala. 

Senior Advocate Dave submitted–

"I am mentioning on behalf of State of Telangana. There was an FIR regarding destabilising the government. The Writ Petition was filed and the Single judge, after recording that request to transfer to CBI had been conceded by their own lawyers, transferred it to CBI. We went to a Division Bench. Division Bench said that the LPA was not maintainable, although the bench was asked to grant protection and requested for CBI to not enter. There is a grave urgency. If CBI enters the investigation, everything will fail."

CJI DY Chandrachud asked Senior Advocate Dave to mention the matter again tomorrow. He said–

"We will list the matter. Mention it tomorrow morning. You don't have to come, ask a junior to mention and we will list it accordingly. Even without mentioning, it will come up next week."

Background

On October 26, Pilot Rohith Reddy, MLA, Tandur Assembly, lodged a first information report alleging that three accused persons met him and asked him to not contest as a candidate of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party. Instead, he was allegedly asked to resign from the BRS and join the BJP and offered an "amount of Rs 100 crores besides contract works of the Central government".

Reddy further alleged that the accused persons threatened to foist criminal cases on him in case he did not agree to their proposal. Pursuant to his complaint, Moinabad Police Station registered an FIR under Sections 120B, 171B, 171E, and 506 of the IPC r/w Section 34 of the IPC and under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Subsequently, the BJP filed a writ petition before the single judge of the Telangana High Court praying for the entrusting of investigation of the matter to an SIT/CBI to ensure a free and fair probe.

On November 15, the Telangana High Court allowed the state government-constituted Special Investigation Team to continue its probe into the MLA poaching case, and also ordered that a single judge of the court would monitor the progress of the investigation. However, on November 21, the Supreme Court quashed the directions passed by the Telangana High Court and directed it to decide the plea for the CBI probe moved by three accused afresh.

On November 25, the Telangana High Court stayed the notice issued by the Special Investigation Team to BJP's National General Secretary B.L. Santhosh in connection with the ongoing investigation in the alleged TRS MLA poaching case. The High Court had granted bail to three accused.