Democracy under threat; this is not a usual probe, says Dave

Hyderabad: Dushyant Dave, senior Supreme Court counsel, appearing for the State on Tuesday prayed in the Telangana High Court to dismiss the writ petition filed by BJP Telangana Unit, represented by its general secretary T Premender Reddy seeking a CBI probe into the TRS MLAs' poaching case alleging mala fide in the investigation by the SIT

He said the three accused,. DPSKVN Simhayaji, Kore Nandu Kumar and Ramachandra Bharati, were caught red-handed by the police on October 26 in a farmhouse in Moinabad inducing and alluring Rohit Reddy, Tandur MLA, with money and contracts so that TRS legislators switched to BJP. The entire conversation between Rohit Reddy and the accused was recorded on audio, videos, call records, It is in possession of SIT. The entire evidence has been sent to FSL and is found authentic; not disputed.

Dave submitted that the inquiry conducted was only a preliminary one; the police are only investigating the matter. The constitutional bench will decide the matter of what is written and wrong.

"The action taken must be proved not mere allegation is not sufficient; it must be demonstrated either by admitted or proved facts. Unfortunately, the petitioners say that the party in power in the State is against the party in power at Centre.Therefore it is mala fide; mala fide is not established in the case at all, Dave submitted.

He argued that the entire case is in a premature stage; the investigation has not yet proceeded with; except some preliminary efforts were taken on the date of registration of the case, i.e., on November 21. "We are also stalled by various orders. They have rushed to courts again and again." Dave averred "the evidence has to be gathered after a thorough investigation, later, to be placed before the court. We are unable to see any force in the contention that complaint should be thrown, over-ruled on a mere unsubstantiated plea of mala fide. The complaint contains serious allegations which have to be tested after evidence is collected. This is a serious fraud;the court doesn't permit these kinds of interferences"

He said the consistent view of this court is you can't ask for changing the investigating agency.. or to do investigation in a particular manner including court monitor investigation. Dave submitted that among independents 157 of total 356 elected legislators joined various parties."That your party (BJP) played a dominant role in the decisions of legislators to defect was obvious from the fact that of 210 defecting legislators from Haryana, MP, Rajasthan, UP, West Bengal 116 were included in the Council of Ministers which they help to bring by defections.

He alleged that most of legislators who crossed from Congress to BJP in MP are now ministers. "Almost all of the legislators crossed over in Maharashtra are now ministers, including CM. In Gujarat 19 MLAs defected from Congress to BJP. In Haryana, few legislators resigned from Congress party with the backing of BJP. That's what they wanted now in Telangana.

Dave argued "When an allegation is made it is the investigation which has to be carried out to trace truth. Further, in this case the prayer of the petitioners is that the investigation must be assigned to CBI, which is under the control of the Centre. Just only on mere allegations of five accused, can the investigation be changed or given to another agency".