HYDERABAD: With the Telangana government vociferously arguing that the petitioner lacks the locus standi, Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court reserved orders on a petition filed by BJP State general secretary G Premender Reddy demanding a CBI/SIT investigation into the alleged attempt to poach four TRS MLAs into the BJP.
The court set the matter for orders on Tuesday after hearing extensive arguments on the maintainability of the writ petition filed by Premender Reddy through his counsel. Arguing for the State Additional Advocate-General J Ramchander Rao told the court that Premender Reddy lacks locus standi to bring this as no one associated with the BJP has been listed as a party in the FIR or the remand rejection order.
“Why is the BJP supporting the three accused -- Ramchander Bharati, Kore Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji -- who attempted to poach the four TRS MLAs? Neither the remand rejection order of the 1st Additional Special Judge for SPE & ACB Court nor the FIR dated October 26 registered at the Moinabad police station show the name of Premender Reddy.
The BJP is not new to this dispute. The crime occurred on October 26 and the BJP approached the High Court on October 27 with a plea to entrust investigation to CBI/SIT citing bias and prejudice and involvement of high police personnel in this occurrence, which was a premature move,” said the AAG.
He further argued that following the occurrence at Moinabad farmhouse on October 26, the Police could only complete the investigation’s necessary procedures, namely the punchnama and the seizure of material at the scene of the crime. “How is it possible for the BJP to request a CBI/SIT investigation into the matter during this brief period when the investigation has not yet begun?” the AAG asked.
He said that TRS MLA Rohith Reddy has been under intense pressure for the past month to give in to the three accused and join the BJP along with other MLAs. The AAG claimed that this renders the writ petition submitted by the BJP state general secretary non-maintainable.
In another writ petition argued before the Court, Uday Holla, senior counsel and former advocate-general of the Karnataka High Court, representing Kore Chitralekha, wife of Nandu Kumar, one of the accused, sought a direction to hand over the investigation to the CBI on the grounds that the accused are the affected party.
Holla cited a Supreme Court order directing the case be handed over to the CBI after top police officers held a press conference about a serious incident that occurred in Delhi. He said that in contrast, the top police officer in Telangana held a press conference prior to the start of the investigation, and sought directions for a CBI probe.
Holla also informed the court that as the Chief Minister had gone on record by holding a press conference on the alleged poaching attempt of his party MLAs and made public audio and video clips about the incident, the investigation should be handed over to CBI/SIT so that facts are disclosed impartially.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Reddy instructed the AAG to provide a copy of the Supreme Court order in the case filed by the three accused seeking bail. The judge was informed that the Supreme Court denied bail to the three defendants as the Telangana High Court was hearing the writ petitions and that two judges of the High Court have delivered inconsistent rulings in two separate writ petitions. Following this, Justice Reddy reserved orders for Tuesday and adjourned the case.