HYDERABAD: While declining to halt the investigation into the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs poaching case, the Telangana High Court on Saturday directed the SIT to not arrest B L Santhosh, national general secretary of the BJP, and Karimnagar-based attorney B Srinivas till further others were issued. However, both of them have been instructed to cooperate with the probe.
Gujjula Premendar Reddy, BJP’s State general secretary, had submitted an Interlocutory Application seeking directions to stay the notices issued by the SIT. While rejecting the plea, Justice B Vijaysen Reddy said that BL Santhosh should not be detained until further directions are issued by the court.
He also heard a second individual writ petition filed by Srinivas, who is reportedly a close associate of BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, seeking a stay of proceedings under Section 41 A of the Civil Procedure Code. Justice Vijaysen ordered that Srinivas not be arrested as well.
Both Santosh and Srinivas, will appear before the SIT. After hearing the arguments of both sides, the case was adjourned to November 22.
‘SIT has crucial evidence’
While giving reasons to support his arrest, J Ramchander Rao, Telangana Additional Advocate General, representing the State, and BS Prasad, Advocate General, said the SIT has crucial evidence against Santosh, who while sitting at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, gave orders to one Hariram Swamy orders from Haridwar to poach TRS MLAs into the saffron party, in a bid to overthrow the state government. However, the judge noted that the notice is issued when an arrest is not necessary.