Telangana HC extends stay on SIT notice to BL Santosh, 3 others

HYDERABAD: Justice K Surender of the Telangana High Court on Monday extended the stay on notices issued under Section 41A of the Civil Procedure Code, to BL Santhosh, Tushar Vellappally, Jaggu Swamy, and Bhusarapu Srinivas, an advocate from Karimnagar, till January 23.

The petitioners filed a lunch motion petition before Justice Surender, seeking an extension of the stay on the notices that were sent to them by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the MLAs' poaching case. The notices expired on December 30, 2022.

During the arguments, Justice Surender asked Santhosh’s senior attorney D Prakash Reddy whether the case still had merit in view of the fact that the CBI has been entrusted with the task of probing the MLAs poaching case. In response, Prakash Reddy told the judge that the order of Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was suspended pending delivery of a certified copy of the ruling.

The prosecution could not provide any evidence against Santhosh, Tushar Vellapally, Jaggu Swamy, and Bhusarapu Srinivas as per the findings of the 1st Additional Special Judge for Trial of SPE & ACB cases in Hyderabad, who rejected the memo filed by the SIT, Prakash Reddy said.

Jaggu Swamy was represented by senior counsel V Pattabhi, who argued against issuing the notice issued under Section 41A of the CPC, claiming that it violated Article 21 of the constitution. He alleged that his client was being intimidated to appear before the SIT.