The court also ruled that the probe should be supervised by a judge, and a comprehensive report should be submitted by 29 November.
A division bench of the Telangana High Court ruled that the present SIT headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand should continue. (Creative Commons)
In a setback to the BJP, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday, 15 November, rejected the petition filed by the party’s state general secretary G Premender Reddy seeking the transfer of the “Cash for MLAs” case to the CBI and an immediate halt to the ongoing investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
After hearing the arguments of both sides, a division bench of the high court led by Chief Justice Ujjal Bhyuan rejected the request for a CBI investigation and ruled that the present SIT headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand should continue.
The division bench also ruled that the investigation should be done under the supervision of a single judge — Justice B Vijaysen Reddy — and a comprehensive report on the probe thus far should be submitted by the police to him by 29 November.
The court also ordered the police not to divulge the details of the investigation either to the media or to politicians. The bench wanted the SIT to continue the investigation in a transparent manner.
The petitioner argued that there had to be an immediate halt to the investigation by the SIT into the “orchestrated” farmhouse scandal in Aziznagar in Moinabad police station limits, where allegations were made that three persons had tried to purchase four TRS MLAs on 26 October.
The petitioner contended that the complaint to the police by TRS legislator Pilot Rohit Reddy — that an attempt was made to purchase him and three other TRS MLAs — was “politically motivated and was intended to defame and demoralise” the BJP.
He said that as the BJP was being defamed, he was seeking the transfer of the case to the CBI for a fair investigation.
The investigation currently underway was biased and was intended to frame the leaders of his party, he argued.
Meanwhile, Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation Chairman Y Satish Reddy welcomed the high court’s judgment rejecting Premendar Reddy’s petition seeking the transfer of the case to the CBI.
The TRS leader said that the path was now clear for the SIT to expose the actual persons involved in the attempt to purchase the legislators as the court also disallowed the request for a halt to the probe by the SIT. He said that he could sense the BJP shaking from the gullies to Delhi.
He asked Premendar Reddy why the party sought a CBI investigation if the BJP leaders were not involved in the case.
He said that Premendar Reddy filed a petition in the court because the BJP was afraid that the SIT set up by the state government would expose the saffron party, and that was the reason it went all the way to the Supreme Court seeking bail for the accused.
He alleged that the state BJP leaders were working under the direction of “No 2”, but did not name him.
Satish Reddy said that apart from Telangana, the SIT would unearth evidence against the BJP on how it toppled the governments in other states across the country.
Satish Reddy said that BJP leaders must be punished for their wrongdoing.
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