Hyderabad, December 27: In a setback for Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the High Court on Monday (December 26) transferred the MLAs' poaching case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The court has also disbanded the Special Investigation Team (SIT) who was probing the case, Bar and Bench reported.
The development comes on the backdrop of the claims made by the Telangana government that several MLAs of the ruling BRS were approached to leave the party and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Responding to HC's order, BRS social media convenor Krishank tweeted that the HC order comes as a relief to the “hiding mouse", without giving further details.
Several petitions were filed in the high court asking the case be transferred to the CBI for an impartial probe.
The incident dates back to October, when Cyberabad police raided a farm house in Telangana's Moinabad and claimed that a conspiracy was being hatched to topple the incumbent BRS government by buying MLAs for Rs 100 crore each. Four BRS MLAs were said to be in touch with the BJP.
KCR had also accused the BJP of trying to bring down his government in the state. Meanwhile, the saffron party refuted the allegations and said that the poaching claims were baseless. The party also denied being in touch with any BRS MLAs.
Even a first information report (FIR) was lodged for criminal conspiracy and other sections under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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