HC stays SIT notices to Santosh in poaching case  

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday stayed till December 5, the CrPC Section 41A notice that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), investigating the alleged poaching of TRS MLAs, had issued to BJP general secretary B.L. Santosh.

Justice Kasoju Surender, while issuing interim orders on Santosh`s quash petition, observed that the SIT notices had not met the requirements under which a person could be summoned.

The judge said that in the first notice on November 16, the SIT had said: "There are reasonable grounds to question you (B.L. Santosh) to ascertain the facts and circumstances from you.” The second notice on November 23 had stated that "during the course of investigation based on evidence available..,"

Justice Surender said it must be decided whether or not the requirements in Section 41A were met when the investigation agency cited "reasonable grounds” and "suspicion." The judge sought counsels’ assistance to ascertain this.

Dictating the interim stay orders, Justice Surender said that prima facie the requirements were missing in the notices.

The court agreed with senior counsel D. Praskash Reddy, representing Santosh, that the requirement under Section 41A would be met when the investigating agency mentioned: (i) reasonable ground / complaint is made against the noticee (ii) there is reasonable suspicion against the noticee (iii) credible information against the noticee has been received.

Advocate-General B.S. Prasad, representing the SIT, said that Santosh had got the BJP to challenge the notice. When the High Court had ordered fresh notice, he had directly filed the quash petition. The AG said there was voluminous material to issue the notice to Santosh, which could not be revealed in the court. "If the court wants to peruse the material, the SIT is ready to produce it in a sealed cover," the AG said

He said the investigation officer could issue a Section 41A notice, directing the person against whom a reasonable complaint has been made, or credible information has been received, or a reasonable suspicion exists  that he has committed a cognisable offence, to appear before the agency.

The SIT also said that Santosh was made an accused in poachgate based on the available material and the memo was filed before the ACB court for its approval.

Later, the state BJP unit welcomed the High Court interim orders staying the notices issued upon Santosh.