Published Nov 24, 2022 | 6:17 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 24, 2022 | 6:18 PM
BJP leader BL Santhosh plans to challenge the Telangana High Court order — that got the Cash-for-MLAs SIT to send a notice to him — in the Supreme Court. (Supplied)
Even as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) sent a notice to BJP national general secretary (orgnisation) BL Santosh to appear before it on either 26 or 27 November, the saffron party leader is understood to have decided to move a petition in the Supreme court challenging the order.
Santhosh is expected to take legal recourse because he now figures as an accused in the case relating to the attempt to poach four TRS MLAs at a farmhouse in Moinabad police station limits in Hyderabad on 26 October.
The SIT sent the second notice to him by email and WhatsApp on Wednesday, as suggested by the Telangana High Court, after the BJP leader did not turn up on 21 November, as directed in the first notice.
He is understood to have sought time since he was busy with party work in Gujarat.
The SIT, which took serious note of his action of ignoring the first notice, approached the high court seeking that it give directions to him to present himself before it (SIT).
The court, instead, asked the SIT to serve the notice for the second time, giving him enough time, while refusing to lift the order it had issued that Santhosh should not be arrested.
BJP leader BL Santhosh. (Supplied)
Naming Santhosh as an accused is being seen as a development that might have political ramifications.
The SIT also added the names of two other persons — Jaggu Swami and Thushar Vellapally from Kerala — as accused besides Karimnagar lawyer B Srinivas.
The SIT mentioned the names of these three persons in a memo it filed with the ACB court.
Of the four persons, only Srinivas appeared before the SIT and answered their questions for two days.
Meanwhile, the SIT sent a notice to Narasapuram MP Raghurama Krishnaraju in Andhra Pradesh, asking him to appear before it on 29 November.
It has already sent notices to Nanda Kumar’s wife Chitralekha and Pratap Goud, a lawyer from Amberpet.
When Goud challenged the notice, the high court asked him to appear before the court and at the same time directed the police not to arrest him.
Goud argued that though he was not a suspect, the SIT had sent him a notice to appear before it on Friday.
The SIT hit a roadblock on Thursday when the ACB special court refused to hand over the three accused in the case — Ramachandra Bharathi alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar, and Simhayaji Swamy — to police custody.
The police has already questioned them for two days after taking their custody through the ACB court.
The SIT argued before the ACB court on Thursday that though it had questioned the accused for two days, it could not get much information and hence filed the petition for their custody for five more days.
The SIT submitted to the court that it had to learn from the accused who else was in the network that tried to poach the TRS MLAs.
