The Telangana government-appointed special investigation team (SIT) that is probing the alleged attempts by BJP agents to poach four TRS legislators will now report to the High Court. The investigation led by Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand and six others will be supervised by Justice B Vijaysen Reddy. On Tuesday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C V Bhaskar Reddy of the High Court said that the SIT must furnish reports to the single bench judge from time to time and not to any executive or political authority. The court also issued a set of instructions to the SIT. The High Court also ordered that there would be no selective leakages to the media, authorities, or executives including the CMO and others as all information regarding the probe would only be submitted to the judge in a sealed envelope by November 29. The Telangana government had constituted a seven-member panel to probe the case on November 9. Other members of the team are Rema Rajeshwari, SP, Nalgonda; Kalmeshwar Singenavar, DCP (Crimes), Cyberabad; R Jagadishwar Reddy, DCP, Shamshabad; N Venkateshwarlu, SP, Narayanpet; B Gangadhar, ACP, Rajendranagar; and Laxmi Reddy, Station House Officer, Moinabad. Three men were arrested by the Cyberabad police on October 26 on the charge that they attempted to lure some TRS MLAs to switch over to the BJP. The court was hearing an appeal filed by the BJP which challenged the earlier orders of the court to allow the state police to continue its investigation. The BJP, while distancing itself from the controversy, had been pressing for a CBI inquiry or an investigation monitored by a judge of the High Court. The prosecution argued that the BJP was trying to stall the investigation process. Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan also expressed displeasure at how the investigation was publicised through a press address by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The state counsel expressed regret and promised the court that it would never be repeated. Rao had sent the pieces of evidence in the case along with phone data, call records, and CCTV footage to the Chief Justice of India, all High Court chief justices, chief ministers and police chiefs of all states, chiefs of the CBI and the ED, presidents of all political parties and media houses to explain the seriousness of the matter. The CM had told the media that BJP was trying to dislodge the governments in Delhi, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh as it was being done in Telangana. In a media statement, the BJP said it was happy and grateful to the High Court for protecting the integrity and transparency of the investigation into the 'farmhouse poaching fiasco', by ordering that the SIT investigation would be directly monitored by the single judge.
