Hyderabad: BJP chief B L Santhosh had recognized the primary accused within the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs poaching case for a very long time they usually regularly chatted on WhatsApp about convincing different leaders to change to his get together, a Telangana government-appointed Particular Investigation Crew (SIT) has submitted within the excessive court docket.
In ‘proof’ offered earlier than the court docket Wednesday, which was accessed by ThePrint, the SIT claimed that the “most vital” conspiracy assembly befell on 15 October at Santhosh’s residence in Delhi — a “authorities quarter” — with many of the accused.
Ramchandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma is the prime accused within the case. Bharati together with the opposite two accused — Hyderabad businessman Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamyji, a priest from Andhra Pradesh’s temple city Tirupati — had been arrested in October after they allegedly tried to lure 4 MLAs of the ruling TRS to hitch BJP. Telangana Police had picked up the three ‘BJP brokers’ from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Although there have been allegations that Bharati and the 2 others supplied as a lot as Rs 100 crore to the 4 TRS MLAs, no money was seized throughout the operation.
On Thursday, the Telangana Excessive Courtroom granted conditional bail to the three accused within the ‘poaching’ case which is being investigated underneath the watch of Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand.
The SIT mentioned that it obtained images of the accused at Santhosh’s home throughout the primary “conspiracy assembly”, their journey paperwork from after they went to Delhi to fulfill him, and video of Santhosh’s home from a cell phone of a particular person recognized as Munjagalla Vijay Kumar.
Vijay Kumar, who had additionally travelled to Delhi to fulfill Santhosh together with the accused and was additionally questioned by the SIT, had jumped from the Congress to BJP, it added.
A purported {photograph} of Santhosh and Bharati after they met in Haridwar on 11 April was additionally offered as proof.
Forward of subsequent 12 months’s polls, Telangana is seeing a political slugfest between the ruling TRS and the opposition BJP. Each events had accused one another of distributing money and liquor in final month’s Munugode meeting bypoll.
Santhosh, the BJP basic secretary (organisation), didn’t reply to ThePrint’s calls and textual content searching for remark. This report shall be up to date as and when he responds.
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‘Plot to destabilise TRS govt’
Broadening the investigation, the SIT had final week named Santhosh and Tushar Vellappaly because the fourth and fifth accused within the case. Vellappaly, the chief of Bharat Dharma Jana Sena in Kerala, had contested towards Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad in 2019.
Vellappaly had moved the excessive court docket urging it to declare Telangana’s SIT investigation course of as unconstitutional. He additionally requested that the case be transferred from the SIT to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A lot earlier than Vellappaly, the BJP’s Telangana unit had sought switch of the case to the CBI instantly after the arrests had been made in October. The court docket, nevertheless, denied the request.
Within the remand report filed instantly after the arrests, the police talked about that they obtained ‘WhatsApp chats’ between Bharati and Santhosh on how he talked about that as many as 25 MLAs had been prepared to leap ship to hitch the BJP in Telangana.
The remand report mentioned that the chats had been with a sure ‘Santhosh BJP,’ which — based on the police — was none apart from the BJP basic secretary (organisation).
Prime accused Bharati, who can be going through separate instances in Hyderabad in reference to a faux passport, had despatched a message to Santhosh in April to tell him in regards to the ‘Telangana operation’, it mentioned.
The police, in the meantime, additionally claimed that the accused had been hatching a plot to “destabilise” the TRS authorities in Telangana. “There have been calls, each common and thru WhatsApp, with B L Santhosh. The accused had referred to as him to present updates on the scenario in Telangana,” a police officer informed ThePrint, not desirous to be named.
Through the course of the investigation, the SIT had served notices to Santhosh for questioning however the Telangana Excessive Courtroom stayed the notices until 5 December. Santhosh has thus far not appeared earlier than the SIT.
Individually, Bharati, Kumar and Simhayaji additionally approached the Supreme Courtroom difficult the excessive court docket order refusing to maneuver the probe to CBI. The apex court docket had requested the HC to look into the request. The SIT, total, named seven accused within the case which additionally included a physician from Kerala, in addition to an advocate.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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