Telangana High Court stays probe, orders remand of accused

Hyderabad: The State High Court on Saturday stayed the ongoing investigation into 'MLAs poaching' case till further orders. The court also passed order for the remand of the three accused.

A single judge bench of the court passed the interim orders on a petition by the BJP seeking probe by CBI into the alleged attempt to buy four MLAs of the TRS Justice B Vijaysen Reddy asked the State government and other respondents to file the counter by November 4.

Petitioner's counsel Rachna Reddy said the court deferred the investigation temporarily until further orders.

She said since the TRS leaders were taking BJP's name in the case without prima facie or circumstantial evidence, the petitioner approached the High Court seeking transfer of the case to CBI for an impartial investigation.

The judge made it clear that his order is only for a few days and hence not in conflict with the order passed by another single judge allowing the remand of the accused.

Earlier, Justice S Sumalatha set aside the order of a lower court rejecting remand for the three accused. The judge asked the lower court to remand the accused to judicial custody upon their production by the police.

The High Court judge observed the lower court did not take into consideration Supreme Court judgment about notices under section 41 of CrPC. The judge noted that if the investigating officer feels that there is no need for issuing notice, he can act accordingly. A couple of hours after this order, Cyberabad police arrested Ramachandra Bharathi alias Satish Sharma, Kore Nanda Kumar alias Nandu and Simhayaji.

The three accused, allegedly to be BJP agents, were arrested by the police from a farmhouse at Moinabad near Hyderabad on the night of October 26 when they were allegedly trying to lure four MLAs of TRS with offers of huge money.