HYDERABAD: A division bench of Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Thukaramji, postponed the hearing of a writ petition against the single judge order into the BRS MLAs’ poaching case until Tuesday. The court heard arguments of Dushyanth Dave, a senior Supreme Court attorney representing the State government, MLA Rohit Reddy, and others, against the handing over of the case to CBI.
During the hearing, Dave opposed the arguments of DVV Seetharama Murthy and L Ravichander, senior counsel representing the accused — Ramchandra Bharati, Nandu Kumar, and Simhayaji. He sought that the single judge’s order in the writ petitions filed by the accused should be rejected as they were not maintainable.
Dave stated that the single judge did not exercise power under the criminal jurisdiction as the accused did not approach not with a plea to quash the FIR filed at the Moinabad Police Station, rather with a request for a mandamus.
Dave also contended that no aspect of the criminal issue in the Poachgate FIR was raised before the single-judge bench and that the inquiry into the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Dave argued that the ruling was faulty because it failed to establish a nexus between the alleged delivery of CDs to the Chief Minister by the Telangana Police and the possession of the CDs by the Chief Minister.
Dave argued that, aside from inferences, no one had found anything wrong with the Special Investigation Team’s investigation into the BRS MLAs’ poaching case and that the single judge had interfered with the State Police’s rights and taken away the Telangana Police’s legal right to conduct its own investigation by transferring the case to the CBI.
For one of the defendants in the case, SD Sanjay, another senior attorney, argued that the single judge was correct to transfer the case to the CBI because the SIT was made up of three IPS officers whose service conditions were controlled by the State’s chief minister. The senior attorney argued that it was unreasonable to expect that the probe would not be contaminated, given this conflict of interest. The hearing will continue on Tuesday, with Dave set to present his reply arguments.