Who gave poachgate evidence to the CM, HC asks SIT

Hyderabad: Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy on Wednesday heard a batch of writ petitions filed by the accused in the poachgate case and BJP leader Premender Reddy seeking a CBI probe into the MLAs poaching case.

Uday Holla, senior counsel from Bengaluru, appearing for B. Srinivas, while concluding his arguments, informed the court that in 2014, 23 MLAs from other political parties, switched over to the TRS and another 10 had done so in 2018 but now the TRS is accusing BJP of poaching its MLAs.

He also said that the chief of the SIT probe had tapped the phone of even the governor, and the TRS party speaks of a fair investigation.

“There is absolute lack of credibility in SIT’s investigation, which should
now be entrusted to some other agency or even a private detective agency for a fair and unbiased investigation.   

Justice Reddy questioned Holla as to the prejudice caused to his client,
when the entire poaching episode had been telecast live by various TV
channels.

Holla submitted that SIT had forwarded all the evidence to the state Chief Minister, who, in turn, released it at a press conference.

Justice Reddy asked advocate general J. Ramchander Rao about who had given the material evidence to the Chief Minister and the media. He asked the question after Holla and other counsels vehemently argued that the police had laid the trap and had recorded everything and later sent them to the media and the Chief Minister.

Ramchander Rao pointed out that the complainant Rohit Reddy could have released the material.

He said that all the counsels on record were also served with the material evidence. The SIT has not given the material to anyone… The media has wrongly reported this aspect.

The court adjourned the case to Friday afternoon so that Mahesh Jethmalani, senior counsel for the three accused, can put forth his argument through video conference as he is in Delhi for the Parliament session.