Hyderabad: Heated arguments continued in the Telangana High Court on Wednesday on the issue of handing over the case of TRS MLA “baiting” to the CBI. Justice B Vijaysen Reddy heard the petitions filed separately by the accused Ramchandra Bharti, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji, along with the state general secretary G Premender Reddy on behalf of the BJP, seeking to hand over the case to the CBI.
Dushyant Dave, a senior advocate for the government, presented the SIT investigation report regarding this case and presented arguments. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani argued on behalf of the accused. Dave said that there was a “conspiracy to overthrow the state government” to which the lawyer for the accused questioned how it could be possible with 104 MLAs in the majority.
Dave further said that the BJP was trying to undermine the federal system by destroying the regional parties. He said the BJP is a national party “targets state parties and makes them non-existent”. “We are a federation of states. There are regional parties, along with the national party. They have their rights. Regional parties fight back when their existence is threatened. The disintegration of regional parties is an insult to the federal system,” he said.
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While urging the court to dismiss the petition to hand over the case to the CBI, Dave urged the court to “consider in how many states BJP has brought down governments”. “It is known to all that 20 to 30 MLAs were taken in chartered flights and kept in star hotels to topple governments. In Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa, the governments collapsed even though the parties had a majority.
They continue to do the same thing again and again,” he said. He said the CBI and ED are arresting those belonging to the opposition parties while citing examples of Maharashtra and Delhi. “The press is silent. Now the courts must protect the constitution and democracy. If a case is filed against those who are overthrowing the government, they are coming to the courts,” he said.
Dave said the SIT investigation in the Telangana MLAs poaching case is “going well” without any influence. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing on behalf of the accused said the petitioners Ramachandra Bharti, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji are not affiliated with any political party and were not involved in any wrongdoing.
“No one was bribed or forced to vote in favour of a party. Investigating officer says it is a conspiracy by BJP to topple the government. How can a government be overthrown with three MLAs,” he said. He said that “no offence of any kind is shown in the FIR”. Alleging that the investigation is “not transparent”, the advocate demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI.
The poaching case was filed on October 26 based on a complaint from TRS Tandur MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy. On November 10, the State government formed a seven-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. The SIT headed by Hyderabad City Police Commissioner CV Anand has Nalgonda SP Rema Rajeshwari, Cyberabad DCP (Crime) Kalmeshwar Shingenawar and Shamshabad DCP R Jagadishwar Reddy as its members among others.
