The ongoing investigation by the Special Investigation Team of the Telangana police into the case of alleged attempt to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLAs into the Bharatiya Janata Party took yet another interesting turn on Friday.
The SIT which conducted searches in multiple locations in the country, including Haryana, Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to unearth the people involved in the poaching scam, served notices on BJP national general secretary B L Santosh.
In the notices which were served under Section 41-A of the Criminal Procedure Code, the SIT asked Santosh to appear before the investigating officer at Telangana Command and Control Centre in Hyderabad t 10.30 am on November 21 to depose on the poaching of the four TRS MLAs.
The SIT also threatened the BJP top leader that it would have to arrest him, if he did not appear before the investigating officer for questioning.
Santosh’s name cropped up several times during the conversation between the three accused – Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy with the four TRS MLAs – Pilot Rohit Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, Rega Kantha Rao and B Harshavardhan Reddy at the farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad on October 26.
The conversation was recorded in the audio and video tapes released later by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
They revealed that Ramachandra Bharathi, who claimed himself to be closer to the top BJP leaders in Delhi, negotiated with Rohit Reddy for bringing more MLAs along with him into the BJP before the by-election to Munugode assembly seat scheduled to be held on November 3.
Saying that he had got clearance from the highest people in the party to lure the TRS MLAs, Bharathi asked the names of those who would be joining the BJP along with Rohit Reddy, but the latter refused to disclose the names till he met the BJP bosses personally.
Bharathi was heard telling the MLA he would arrange a meeting with B L Santosh, organising secretary of the BJP, after the deal is struck at Hyderabad.
He even mentioned No. 1 and No. 2 in the BJP who would be coming Santosh’s place, but did not take their names.
In this connection, the SIT wants to find out the connections between the accused and Santosh. The remand report of the police also revealed the text messages between Bharati and Santosh.