Telangana HC to monitor SIT Poachgate probe, Legal News, ET LegalWorld – Legal Firms


HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court delinked on Tuesday the ongoing special investigation team (SIT) probe into Poachgate from state control and brought it directly under court supervision, directing SIT chief CV Anand to report only to the court and to no one else in the state. The order appears to have satisfied both TRS and BJP, for now.

Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, the single judge hearing the pleas of BJP and the accused trio in the Poachgate case seeking either a CBI or SIT probe, will monitor the probe.

“Do not brief the progress of the probe to any political or executive authority. The same should not be divulged or leaked to the media. The SIT shall furnish to the single judge its first report in a sealed cover by November 29,” a high court bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy said, making Anand personally responsible for strict adherence to the court’s directions.

If SIT wants any permission, it would make an application before the single judge and not to any political or executive authority. No outside authority would interfere in the probe nor would the SIT entertain them,” the bench said while disposing of a writ appeal filed by BJP general secretary Premendar Reddy expressing apprehension over a state-controlled probe into the issue and seeking its transfer to either the CBI or a SIT.

The three accused of attempting to poach TRS MLAs are Faridabad-based religious preacher Ramachandra Bharathi, Hyderabad-based businessman Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy of Tirupati.

The state government had opposed pleas by them and BJP for a CBI probe, saying that it did not have any faith in a probe by the central agency.

The state has already withdrawn the general consent it had accorded earlier to CBI. The Telangana government had recently set up an SIT under Hyderabad police commissioner CV Anand to probe Poachgate.

The High Court for now has allowed this SIT to continue its probe while the BJP petition seeking a CBI probe remains pending before the same single judge who is entrusted with monitoring the investigation.





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