Telangana HC grants bail to 3 accused amid TRS-BJP faceoff over MLA poaching controversy

In a big development in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs poaching case, the Telangana High Court on Thursday granted bail to the three arrested accused with certain conditions. The three accused have been granted bail on the security of Rs 3 lakhs with two sureties. Apart from this, the three persons have to also appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) every Monday.

Notably, the three persons -- namely Nanda Kumar, a hotelier from Hyderabad; Swami Ramachandra Bharati alias S Satish Sharma from Faridabad and Simhayaji from Tirupati -- were arrested by the state police on October 26, while they were allegedly trying to defect the four MLAs of the Chief Minister KCR-led ruling TRS (Now BRS). Their arrest came following a complaint by Pilot Rohith Reddy, one of the four TRS MLAs, under relevant sections.  

According to the FIR, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore as a bribe and demanded him to defect from ruling TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly elections.

SIT summons BJP leader BL Santhosh 

Earlier on November 16, the SIT constituted by the Telangana government summoned BJP national general secretary BL Santhosh in connection with the poaching case. Issuing a notice regarding the same, it was mentioned that there are reasonable grounds to question BJP leader BL Santhosh to ascertain facts and circumstances in the alleged poaching row in Telangana. He was, therefore, directed to appear before the SIT in Hyderabad on November 21. 

Following this, the Telangana High Court stopped the SIT constituted by the state government from arresting him in the poaching case. The investigation team further issued a second notice to Santhosh to appear before it and asked him to appear before it for questioning on November 26 or November 28. 

TRS-BJP faceoff over poaching row

Earlier on October 26, the Telangana Police claimed to have busted a poaching attempt of four TRS MLAs -- G Balaraju, B Harshvardhan Reddy, R Kantha Rao and Rohith Reddy. Following this, three accused were arrested by the state police. Notably, soon after the arrests were made, the ruling party of Telangana alleged that BJP was attempting to poach its MLAs in view of the crucial Munugode bypoll.

Meanwhile, BJP refuted the claims and stated that the entire incident is fabricated and planned by TRS (now BRS) itself. The BJP further claimed that the TRS is accusing BJP of a false case.