SIT to go aggressive in Poachgate after SC order

Hyderabad: As the Apex court struck down on Monday the Telangana High Court's order on the single judge monitoring the probe into Poachgate, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) will go aggressive in the case.

The SIT, headed by City Police Commissioner CV Anand, quizzed State BJP president B Sanjay Kumar's aide and advocate Srinivas and recorded his statements. It is learnt that Srinivas disclosed details of booking flight tickets for Ramachandra Bharati and Simhayajulu, who have been arrested.

Sources said "Srinivas told the investigating agency that he booked flight tickets for two Swamijis to perform special puja at his residence". He also revealed some important information regarding his contacts with the two arrested persons before they arrived in Hyderabad to hold talks with four TRS MLAs at a farmhouse. Alerted, the police caught three persons, including Nanda Kumar, when they were holding talks trying to lure the MLAs with Rs 100 crore package if they shifted loyalties to the BJP.

The SIT also issued notices to BJP top leader BL Santosh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah's close aide Tushar and Dr. Jaggiji Swamy from Kerala. However, they did not appear before SIT.

They faced allegations of hatching a conspiracy to poach the MLAs and topple the Chandrashekar Rao government soon after the Munugode by-election results were declared in November's first week. On a tip-off, the police unearthed the conspiracy and arrested the persons involved in the poaching of legislators.