Suspend Poachgate order on CBI probe: Telangana to HC

HYDERABAD: Supreme Court senior counsel Dushyant Dave on Thursday urged Telangana high court to suspend the single judge order handing over the Poachgate case to CBI and preventing Telangana police from probing the case.
Dushyant said that when a political party ruling the nation tries to purchase MLAs and goes on a poaching spree, destabilising governments in state after state and poses a threat to the federal set-up, the judiciary should step in as a saviour. He said that the single judge order was full of contradictions.
The senior counsel was addressing a bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Tukaramji on behalf of the state government, particularly its police and special investigation team (SIT), which filed an appeal against the order of the single judge who last week directed the state to hand over the probe to CBI.
Dushyant told the bench that the Poachgate tapes depict the manner in which the accused had claimed to have purchased MLAs from various states and toppled non-BJP state governments in as many as eight states. He said if any state leader resists the process, he will be greeted by CBI and ED. The CBI could not prove its impartiality under the current regime because it did not raid a single BJP leader in the last eight years.
"All those who were raided are non-BJP leaders. We are not asking anyone to shield the corrupt in any party. Let the law be unleashed on all the corrupt elements regardless of their political affiliations. If you are purchasing MLAs, you are depriving millions of people their right to get work done through legislators," he said.
Dushyant said that the single judge order endorses the outburst of the chief minister against poaching in one para and says this causes prejudice against accused in another para.
The senior counsel wanted the court to observe the conduct of the BJP that distances itself from the accused on one hand and rushes to court with pleas that would protect them on the other. He urged the court to stay the single judge order to prevent the CBI from taking over the probe.
Appearing for the accused trio - Ramachandra Bharathi, K Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, senior counsel DV Sitarama Murthy objected to the state government's appeal. "It is a criminal case and once a court decides the issue in criminal cases, the aggrieved party must knock the door of the Supreme Court," he said. Dushyant, however, refuted this and said then the order of the single judge should be set aside immediately because he is not the roster judge to hear the criminal cases.
The arguments will continue on Friday.