Order was issued on 30 August, a day before Telangana CM went to Bihar and urged all Opposition states to withdraw consent to the CBI.
Published Oct 30, 2022 | 3:23 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 30, 2022 | 6:39 PM
The Telangana government has withdrawn general consent to CBI to investigate cases in the state. The existence of the order was revealed when the Additional AG was arguing in the Cash for MLAs case in the High Court. (Wikimedia Commons)
In a significant development, the state government has withdrawn consent given to the CBI to investigate cases in Telangana at a time when the BJP’s petition seeking a CBI probe into the “cash for MLAs” case is set to come up for hearing in the high court in a few days.
The Government Order (GO) No: 51 was issued on 30 August, ahead of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s visit to Bihar the next day where he, along with his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, demanded that all Opposition-ruled states should withdraw the general consent given to the CBI.
Interestingly, the news about the GO, which was issued nearly two months ago, came out when the Additional Attorney General (AG) argued before the Telangana High Court on Saturday that since the consent given to the CBI stood withdrawn, an inquiry by the central investigation agency cannot be sought.
Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, lays down that the CBI has to have consent from the states for taking up the investigation of cases in their jurisdictions. If there is no general consent, the CBI has to seek permission from the state to register a case and investigate it.
The chief minister, while making the demand in Bihar, however, did not say that a GO in this regard was already in force in Telangana.
KCR had argued for the withdrawal of the consent, as, according to him, the BJP dispensation at the Centre was misusing the central investigation agency to settle political scores with Opposition parties. He reminded the chief ministers of the Opposition-ruled states that policing was after all a state’s subject.
The Additional AG made the observation while arguing on a petition filed by BJP leader Gujjula Premender Reddy that the high court should order a probe by either the CBI or an SIT into the “Cash for MLAs” case.
The Government Order issued on 30 August, withdrawing consent to the CBI to investigate cases in Telangana.
The Additional AG’s observation is being seen as the government’s pre-emptive move to forestall any bid to order the CBI to probe into the “farmhouse drama” in Aziznagar in Moinabad on Wednesday, where the police caught three emissaries reportedly representing the BJP and trying to persuade four TRS legislators to join the saffron brigade for a consideration of ₹100 crore for one of them — Rohit Reddy — and ₹50 crore each for the remaining three legislators.
When the TRS went to town, painting the BJP as the master poacher of the legislators, the saffron party countered, saying that it was a “stage-managed charade” only to defame the party ahead of the by-election to Munugode.
The police, however, went ahead and registered a case. Though the police had a minor setback with the ACB judge refusing to remand them, the high court on a revision petition filed by the police, directed that they should be sent to judicial remand.
The BJP, apparently stung by the voices on audio clips making repeated references to BJP as the party that was trying to engineer defections, also moved the high court.
The four TRS MLAs who informed the police that they were being offered money and contracts to switch sides. (Supplied)
Party state leader Gujjula Premender Reddy, in his petition, sought either a CBI probe or an SIT to ferret out the truth behind the “enactment of the drama” while the party state president said that the dramatis personae in the act were puppeteered by KCR himself from Pragati Bhavan.
The court ordered the police to halt its investigation in the case till the government filed its reply and it heard the matter.
The BJP went even to the extent of saying that it is the TRS that is in the habit of luring Opposition MLAs and referred to how it had effected the merger of 12 of 18 Congress MLAs in the Telangana Assembly into the TRS.
The Congress, too, has repeatedly slammed the TRS for poaching its MLAs with the offer of pelf.
The sudden appearance of two months old GO on Sunday is being seen as the TRS’s way of reminding the BJP that it cannot do anything even if it manages to get a CBI inquiry instituted, as there is no consent for the central investigative agency to investigate any case in Telangana.
