MLA poaching accused branded as conspirators by none other than Chief Minister; won't get fair probe by SIT: Telangana High Court

The accused persons in the Telangana MLA poaching case were condemned publicly and branded as conspirators by none other than the Chief Minister (CM) of the State K Chandrashekhar Rao and these incidents called into question the fairness of the probe conducted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Telangana High Court said earlier this week [Bharatiya Janata Party & Ors v State]..The Court made the observations while transferring the ongoing Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS/ formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi) MLA poaching case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from the Special Investigation Team (SIT).In an order passed on December 26, single-judge Justice B Vijaysen Reddy noted that the CM himself circulated videos about the accused to important Constitutional functionaries, even before charge sheet in the case was filed and at the initial stages of the investigation."Constitution of SIT under the Government will not alter the situation, more particularly, when an authority none other than the Hon’ble Chief Minister himself has openly circulated the videos and branded the accused and members of the organised crime as conspirators. The entire episode and turn out of events is something unprecedented and incomprehensible and unhesitatingly, this Court holds that the accused have made out a case for transfer of investigation," the Court held.The Court was hearing a plea by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to transfer the probe in the matter to the CBI..The Court stressed that actual bias need not be proved and it would suffice if legitimate and reasonable apprehension of bias, taint and unfair investigation is made out by the accused.The bench relied on Babubhai’s case wherein the Supreme Court had held that not only fair trial but unbiased investigation is also part of Constitutional rights guaranteed under Articles 20 and 21 of the Constitution of India. "It is not necessary that actual bias should be proved and issue has to be examined from the view point of the accused to see whether any prejudice is caused or not," the Court said. .Serious prejudice is caused to the accused, who are branded publicly as conspirators, thereby, depriving their rights to effectively defend the criminal proceedings and avail their legal remedies under law, the Court held.The bench was also critical of the fact that the counsel for the respondents could not offer any plausible explanation or theory as to how the third video CDs / pen drives which were seized under mediators’ report panchanama on October 27, were handed over to the Chief Minister. Who has handed over the same, when and how, remains a mystery and, therefore, to say that no prejudice is caused to the accused is unreasonable and unacceptable, the Court added..The case was accordingly transferred to CBI by the Court with a direction to proceed with de novo investigation, after taking into consideration the report lodged by one Pilot Rohit Reddy.With this the SIT constituted to probe the matter was also dissolved by the Court..The case stems from allegations that the ruling BRS MLAs were approached to defect to the BJP.A first information report (FIR) was lodged for criminal conspiracy and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.It was alleged that on September 6 two out of the three accused persons (Ramachandra Bharati @ Satish Sharma and Nanda Kumar) had met the informant and negotiated with him not to contest as a candidate from the BRS party. Instead, he was asked to resign from BRS and join BJP..The informant further stated that in connection with the same, he was offered an amount of ₹100 crores besides certain contract works of the Central government and was even threatened with dire consequences if he refused.The BJP, however, contended that the entire episode was stage managed with the sole objective of defaming appellant political party.Against this backdrop, it moved the High Court contending that the case registered with the Moinabad Police Station should be entrusted to the CBI or an SIT for a free and fair investigation.A probe by SIT was already underway by then.In November, the Court had after noting that an SIT had already been formed, proceeded to pass directions to ensure that the probe was independent.The order of December 26 dissolved the SIT and transferred the case to CBI.Senior Advocates Mahesh Jethmalani and Uday Holla and advocates Ravi Sharma and Varun Chug appeared for the petitioners. .[Read Order]