The SIT had filed a memo in the special court of the ACB requesting to array BJP's BL Santhosh and three others as accused in the case.
The SIT had approached the Telangana High Court with a criminal revision plea to quash the ACB court's order. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Telangana High Court on Monday, 2 January, dismissed a plea by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) against the order of a local court rejecting its memorandum to name senior BJP leader BL Santhosh and three others as accused in “Cash for MLAs” case.
The SIT, which was set up by the state government to investigate the case, in November 2022 had filed a memo in the special court of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) requesting to array BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh and two persons from Kerala — Tushar Vellappally and Jaggu Swamy — besides advocate B Srinivas, as accused (A4 to A7) in the case.
However, after hearing the arguments, the court on 6 December rejected the memo.
Challenging the rejection, the SIT had approached the Telangana High Court with a criminal revision plea to quash the court’s order.
Three people — Ramachandra Bharati (alias Satish Sharma), Nanda Kumar Kore and Simhayaji Swamy — were already named as accused (A1 to A3) in the case after a complaint was lodged by BRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy against them on 26 October.
The trio was arrested for allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of the ruling BRS to join the BJP. Subsequently, they were granted bail by the high court.
As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him ₹100 crore and, in return, the legislator had to leave the BRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next state Assembly election.
They had allegedly asked Reddy to bring more BRS MLAs by offering ₹50 crore each to join the BJP.
Following the complaint, cases under relevant sections — including criminal conspiracy, offering bribe — of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, were filed against them.
The special court of the ACB, in its order, observed that neither the police nor the SIT formed is competent to investigate the offences relating to the Prevention of Corruption Act, and that only the Special Police Establishment — Anti-Corruption Bureau — is the competent authority to probe the case.
Therefore, on this ground also, the request of the investigating officer to array the proposed accused as A4 to A7 cannot be considered, it stated. As such, the memo filed by the investigating officer is liable to be rejected, it added.
The Telangana High Court on 26 December ordered the investigation into the “Cash for MLAs” case to be transferred to the CBI, from the SIT of the state police. The high court also quashed the government order to constitute the SIT and the investigation so far carried out by it.
The Telangana government on 9 November ordered the setting up of a seven-member SIT to probe into the alleged attempt to poach the MLAs.
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