Drugs case: High Court directs Telangana to file report on SIT probe

Hyderabad: The High Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy on Thursday heard public interest litigation filed by Congress MP A Revanth Reddy. The Congress leader through the PIL has urged the court to declare the action of the State Prohibition and Excise Department in choosing to entrust the entire investigation in the drug trafficking case to the Special Investigation Team is ill-equipped to investigate the said issue without any consultation or assistance sought from Narcotics Control Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau and the ED and CBI as illegal, arbitrary and against Article 21 of the Constitution.

The Chief Justice said that the Court was surprised that no counter was filed by SIT because SIT was able to tell when the chargesheet was filed. What was the status of the trial? How many persons have been investigated against? Was the investigation still continuing against certain persons or not? The Chief Justice directed the State government to file a report on the SIT investigation in the drugs case.

Counsel for the petitioner, Bollu Rachna Reddy, informed the court that the Narcotics Control Bureau was ready for the investigation, and alleged that the State government was not giving details of the case to the NCB.

Advocate General Banda Shivananda Prasad sought a short time to get details from the authorities concerned and to file the counter. The CJ bench directed the State government to inform the status of the SIT investigation and posted the matter to December 10.