The ongoing clash between two political parties, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in Telangana has now escalated into a confrontation between the state government and the Union government after the ruling TRS government withdrew the general consent accorded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In a Government Order issued by the Home Department on August 30, the government of Telangana said that it is withdrawing all previous general consents issued by the state government under section 6 of the Delhi Special Establishment Act, 1946 (approval of Union government to conduct inquiry or investigation). Though the GO was issued two months ago, it was made public only on Sunday.
“Consequent to the withdrawal of all previous general consents issued earlier, including the Notification issued in G.O.Ms.No.160, Home (SC) Department, dt. 23.09.2016, prior consent of Government of Telangana shall be required to be taken on a case-to-case basis for investigation of any offence or class of offences, under Section 3 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 by the Delhi Special Police Establishment, in the State of Telangana,” the order read.
In the past, the state governments of Andhra Pradesh (under Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu), West Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra (under Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray) and Kerala had taken similar action against the national agency.
Telangana is witnessing an intense battle between the TRS and the BJP ahead of the Munugode bye-poll scheduled for November 3. Amidst this, in a sensational move, the state government arrested three persons – Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy – allegedly belonging to the BJP, on October 26 after raiding a farmhouse in the outskirts of Hyderabad. The police claimed that the accused were trying to buy TRS MLAs – Rega Kantha Rao, Guvvala Balaraju, Beeram Harshvardhan Reddy and Pilot Rohith Reddy – by promising them nearly Rs 100 crores of cash, contracts and other perks. The Cyberabad police said that it had seized Rs 15 crore cash during the raid.
While the TRS has accused the BJP of engineering a defection to destabilise the state government, the latter has denied the allegations and demanded that the CBI take over the case. TRS working president KT Rama Rao has been accusing the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax Department and other national agencies of being compliant with the BJP.
As the BJP rubbished the charges of horse-trading as a “drama” orchestrated by the state government, the TRS released two audio clips, purportedly of conversations between the accused Ramachandra Bharati, a priest from Faridabad in Delhi, and Tandur MLA Rohith Reddy. In the audio, Ramachandra Bharati is striking a deal with Rohith Reddy, asking him to bring more MLAs. In exchange, the latter demands his personal security and safety of his political career. The audio conversation indicates that top BJP leaders such as National General Secretary BL Santosh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are involved in the alleged poaching.
Speaking about the case, KTR said on Saturday, “The law will take its own course and I am fully confident that the investigating agencies will do their job.” He refused to comment further, saying that anything he said could be interpreted as influencing the investigation.