The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana Police to issue a fresh notice under Section 41 A of CrPC to BJP leader BL Santosh after he failed to appear for interrogation. Meanwhile, the SIT, probing the sensational TRS MLA poaching case, has issued notices to two more persons in connection with it. Pratap Goud, a lawyer from Amberpet in Hyderabad, and Chitralekha, wife of Nanda Kumar — one of the three accused in the case — have been served notices under section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code. These two have been summoned as, according to the SIT, they were in the loop about the plan and that there is evidence of their involvement.
Chitralekha and advocate Pratap Goud have been summoned to appear in front of the SIT on Friday, November 25. Meanwhile, Pratap has moved High Court seeking stay on further proceedings. With the two latest ones, the SIT has issued notices to six persons in the case. Earlier, the notices were served to four persons — BJP leader BL Santhosh, Dr Jaggu Swamy, Tushar Vellapally and lawyer A Srinivas — but only the lawyer has appeared before the police so far.
Meanwhile, the SIT has also booked a case against Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, the main accused in the TRS MLA poaching case, as the SIT is learnt to have found a copy of a fake passport on his laptop.
A Srinivas, a lawyer from Karimnagar, who is the only one to have appeared before the SIT on Monday and Tuesday, did not turn up for interrogation on Wednesday. It is learnt that Srinivas informed the SIT that he was admitted to hospital.
According to sources, the lawyer did not fully cooperate with the SIT during the ongoing interrogation on Monday and Tuesday. He cited a headache and tried to dodge several questions for which the SIT sought answers. The SIT has proof of transactions from his account and the accused’s account in the weeks preceding the poaching incident. It is learnt that Srinivas has also moved court challenging the notice.
Srinivas maintained that he isn’t related to Telangana BJP Chief Bandi Sanjay as claimed. However, from the interrogation, the SIT found that the advocate’s brother is married to a cousin of Bandi Sanjay. Srinivas also claimed that he has had no prior interaction with the accused. The SIT through its investigation has found that Srinivas has interacted several times through phone calls with Simhayaji and Nanda Kumar, two of the three main accused in the poaching case. It is to interrogate further that the lawyer was asked to appear again on Wednesday in front of the SIT.
TNM has also learnt that while a lookout circular was issued for Dr Kottilil Narayan Jaggu, alias Jaggu Swamy, a doctor at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences at Ernakulam in Kerala and Tushar Vellapally Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) president, the SIT couldn’t issue a look out circular for BL Santosh as they did not have his passport number. Circulars have also been issued to prevent them both from leaving the country.
Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Simhayaji and Nanda Kumar were arrested by the Cyberabad 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.
Cyberabad police conducted the raid on a tip-off by Pilot Rohit Reddy, one of the MLAs. He alleged that the accused offered Rs 100 crore to him and Rs 50 crore each to three others.
The accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act.