Telangana HC directs B L Santhosh to appear before SIT; adds, ‘no arrest until further orders’
Hyderabad: B L Santosh, general secretary of the BJP, was directed by the Telangana High Court to appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that is probing the allegations against him of poaching Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) legislators.
Single-bench Justice B Vijaysen Reddy has directed the BJP leader to appear before the seven-bench team. Justice Reddy also directed Santhosh to comply with conditions while the police was issued a direction not to arrest the political leader, reports Bar and Bench.
The plea had been filed by the BJP state unit asking for a stay on the November 16 notice to Santhosh under the SIT under Section 41A (notice of appearance before police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The Court, however, clarified, "It needs no mention that when notice under Section 41A of CrPC is issued, arrest of a person is not required. It appears, the petitioner has apprehension that the notice under Section 41A of CrPC is issued to implicate the noticee and thereby arrest him."
The petitioner was also given liberty to seek clarification from the bench in the matter, if needed.
The High Court had directed the SIT on November 15 to report to no political or executive authority but only to the single-judge bench of the High Court.
On November 19, senior counsel V Chitambaresh, representing the petitioner, had argued during the hearing that the SIT should have taken Court permission in the matter as per the November 15 order.
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Puthucherry CM Rangasamy secures unassailable lead
Puducherry (PTI): Chief Minister and AINRC leader N Rangasamy was on course to retain his Thattanchavady Assembly constituency as counting of votes polled in the April 9 Puducherry Assembly elections was on across the UT.
At the end of four rounds of counting, which was the last one, the CM was ahead of his TVK-backed Neyyam Makkal Kazhagam candidate E Vinayakam by 4,441
votes, gaining an unassailable lead.
The veteran leader polled 10,024 while Vinayakam polled 5583 votes. Congress' Ve Vaithilingam polled 2990 votes, bracing for the fourth place after an independent.
This constituency is an important segment which drew the attention of political parties. Rangasamy has contested from two segments-Thattanchavady and Mangalam segments.
