SC to hear plea against CBI probe into BRS MLAs poaching case on February 17

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on February 17 a plea against the Telangana High Court's order for the CBI probe into alleged criminal conspiracy behind the attempt to poach BRS MLAs by the BJP.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud.

He contended the matter required urgent hearing as if the CBI takes over the probe, the petition here would become infructuous.

The bench, also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, however, said the matter would be taken up on February 17.

The bench rejected Luthra's repeated plea for an early date, saying "we will reverse the (HC's) order, if necessary."

On February 6, in a setback to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the BRS MLAs alleged poaching case, the division bench of the Telangana High Court upheld the earlier orders of a single judge transferring the case to CBI.

KCR has alleged the involvement of some top BJP leaders to poach its four MLAs, in order “to topple his government.”

The bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji on Monday dismissed the petitions of the KCR government and BRS MLA Rohith Reddy challenging the December 26 order of Justice Vijaysen Reddy.

The court had then quashed the state government orders constituting an SIT to probe the alleged legislators’ poaching bid.

The division bench had also rejected the state government counsel’s appeal to keep the order in suspension for 15 days to allow them to approach the Supreme Court.

According to the FIR, MLA Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused had on October 26, 2022, offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS.

They also allegedly asked Reddy to bring some more TRS MLAs by offering Rs 50 crore each to join the BJP.

Three persons Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, named as accused have already been granted bail.

The state government had on November 9, 2022, formed an SIT, comprising state police officers to investigate the matter.

A court had earlier rejected a plea by the SIT to rope in senior BJP leader B L Santhosh as accused in the matter.