Telangana MLAs poaching case: No relief yet for three arrested accused after Supreme Court defers hearing

Three persons arrested by the Telangana Police in relation to alleged attempt by BJP to poach the MLAs of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), did not get any relief from the Supreme Court on Friday after the Court deferred the hearing in their case for November 7, Monday..The three men, Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy accused to be BJP agents, moved the apex court against an October 29 order of Telangana High Court asking them to surrender before the Commissioner of police of Cyberabad Commissionerate. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna, however, adjourned the matter for Monday next week. .The three men have been accused of approaching TRS leader Pilot Rohith Reddy to get TRS MLAs to defect to the BJP. The accused had been apprehended by the Cyberabad Police in October based on a complaint by Reddy. A special court did not grant the police request for remand after noting that their detention was in violation of the guidelines in Arnesh Kumar since notice under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code was not served. The High Court had reversed this ruling and said that the police are at liberty to approach the Magistrate for remanding the accused to judicial custody. However, while deciding another writ petition filed by the petitioners, the High Court on October 29 deferred the probe into the case till Friday (today), noting that the complaint seemed politically motivated. The trio were still arrested. .The plea, filed through advocate Parijat Kishore, stated that the since no money was recovered, the High Court had erroneously directed that they have to surrender.Further, since no notice was given and the punishment for the offence is imprisonment up to seven years, the arrest was also in violation of the guidelines in Satendar Antil. The complaint has been filed at the behest of TRS leaders to malign the BJP and implicate the petitioners, the plea alleged."The manner in which investigation is being conducted gives an impression that the same is not being done in fair manner and is done with ulterior motive to tarnish image of the ruling central government as instead of investigation officer, the commissioner of police, Cyberabad, Commissionerate is conducting the investigation," the petition stated..It was also submitted that the Commissioner probing the case reached the alleged scene of offence even before registration of the crime and gave interviews. Further, even before a preliminary enquiry was complete, offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act were included against the petitioners. This is illegal as MLAs are not public servants under the Act, it was contended."Panchama of the remand case diary was drafted on 26.10.2022 at 12:30 hours and concluded at 14:30 hours on the same day. The signatures of the mediators are made on 27.10.2022. Further, the seizure proceedings which were drafted on 26.10.2022, also contains signatures of the officials made on 26.10.2022 and the signature of the mediators made on 27.10.2022," the petition states..The plea has drawn and settled by advocates Puneet Yadav and Sourabh Gupta..Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan and advocate Prashant Dahat appeared for the petitioners. Senior Advocates Sidharth Luthra and Dama Seshadari Naidu with advocates S Uday Kumar Sagar,Sweena Nair, Angaj Gautam, Sarthak Karol, and Shivali Chaudhary appeared for the respondents. [Read order]