Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday extended the stay on the notice issued under Section 41A of CrPC by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing into the alleged attempt to poach TRS MLAs, to senior BJP leader B L Santhosh till December 22. The High Court which had on December 5 extended the order staying the notice issued by SIT to BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) Santhosh till today again extended the stay till December 22.
Earlier, the High Court had on November 25 stayed the notice issued to Santhosh till December 5 which was later extended till December 13.
Meanwhile, the High Court today also extended the stay on the notice under section 41A of CrPC issued by the SIT to Jaggu Swamy, a resident of Kerala, till December 22.
The SIT had earlier issued notices to Santhosh and others to appear before it for questioning on November 21. But, they did not. So, based on the court direction, the SIT again issued notice to Santhosh to appear before it either on November 26 or 28. A special court of Anti-Corruption Bureau here on December 6 had rejected the plea of the SIT, to name Santhosh and three others as accused in the case.The state government challenged it in the High Court which after hearing the arguments posted the matter for orders to December 21.
Three persons -- Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, were already named as accused (A1 to A3) in the case after a complaint was lodged by TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, among four legislators, against them on October 26. The trio was subsequently arrested, but were recently granted bail by the High Court.
As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator has to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly elections. They allegedly asked Reddy to bring some more TRS MLAs by offering Rs 50 crore each to join the BJP. The Telangana government on November 9 ordered the setting up of a seven-member SIT to probe into the alleged attempt of poaching of the MLAs. (PTI)
