TRS MLAs poaching case : Santhosh, Jaggu abstain again

K Venkateshwarlu
Hyderabad

BJP General Secretary BL Santhosh, Jaggu Swamy and BDJS President Thushar Vellappally did not appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday. The SIT approached the High Court on Tuesday regarding BL Santhosh and two others abstaining from the SIT investigation. The High Court asked the lawyer of the accused why he had failed to attend the investigation.

The SIT informed the court that the three, BL Santhosh, Jaggu Swamy and Thushar Vellappally, did not even care about the notices or appear before it. The SIT urged the court to issue an order as the Delhi Police has not handed over the notices to BL Santhosh.

Santhosh’s lawyer informed the court that he doesn’t know the reasons and will inform the court later after consulting his senior lawyer. But the HC made it clear that there won’t be any protection from arrest for the accused. Why did they fail to attend court even after the court gave orders, the court asked.

The HC informed that it will examine Supreme Court directions, the SIT investigation and other issues on Wednesday. On the other hand, the ACB court also heard the petition filed by the SIT seeking custody of three accused.

It may be recalled that the SIT had filed a petition on Saturday seeking the custody of the three accused. The SIT informed the ACB court that there is a need to find out details as it is a very important case and as there is a need to collect info about relations the accused had with others.

The SIT said that it had failed to collect the information from the accused although the court allowed two days of custody. The SIT urged the court to allow custody for one more week.

The lawyers of the accused filed a counter against the police petition as per the directions of the Nampally court. The ACB Special Court said that the court will listen to all arguments on Wednesday.

Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s follower Lawyer Busarapu Srinivas informed the SIT that he had booked a flight ticket for Simhayaji, who is an accused in the Moinabad farmhouse TRS MLAs poaching case, as a disciple and that there is no political angle in it. Appearing before the SIT on the second day on Tuesday, Srinivas faced questions for seven hours.

Speaking to the media after coming out from the Police Command Control after the SIT investigation, Srinivas said that he had no links with the BJP in any way and that there is no link with the Moinabad Farmhouse case. He said that he has familiarity with Simhayaji as he had conducted poojas with Simhayaji and as a disciple of Simhayaji who had booked flight tickets.

Srinivas said what is wrong if you booked a ticket to Peetadhipathi and made it clear that booking a ticket is not a crime. Srinivas said that SIT officials have been questioning him for two days on the basis of ticket booking.

Srinivas said that he had informed the SIT that he will extend his full cooperation to the SIT investigation. Srinivas handed over the details sought by the SIT like mobile phone and bank statement.