TRS MLAs 'poaching' case: BJP leader B L Santhosh, 3 more named as accused
Hyderabad (PTI): Senior BJP leader B L Santhosh and three others were named as accused by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the case of alleged conspiracy to poach four TRS MLAs, officials said on Thursday.
Following directions from the Telangana High Court, the SIT, probing the case, also issued a second notice to BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) Santhosh, who is yet to appear before it.
In the fresh notice, he has been asked to appear before SIT for questioning on November 26 or November 28, official sources told PTI.
Based on the investigations so far, the SIT filed a memo in a special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court here adding the names of Santhosh and two persons from Kerala--Jaggu Swami and Tushar Vellapally, besides B Srinivas, as accused in the case, they said.
Three persons -- Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, were already named as accused in the case after a complaint was lodged by TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, among four legislators, against them on October 26.
As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly election.
The Telangana High Court on Wednesday had directed the SIT to again serve notice on Santhosh under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to Santhosh.
Earlier, the Telangana SIT had issued notices to Santhosh and the two persons from Kerala to appear before it for questioning on November 21. However, they did not turn up before the probe panel. Srinivas, who was also summoned by the SIT, had appeared before it.
The Telangana government on November 9 ordered the setting up of a seven-member SIT to probe into the alleged poaching of the MLAs.
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Salman Khan firing case: Mumbai police recovers two pistols, bullets from Tapi river
Mumbai (PTI): The Mumbai police's crime branch has recovered two pistols, magazines and bullets from the Tapi river in Gujarat during a search operation to recover weapons allegedly used in the firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence, an official said on Tuesday.
The crime branch has recovered two pistols, three magazines and 13 bullets during the search that began on Monday, the official said.
A team of 12 officials, including 'encounter specialist' senior police inspector Daya Nayak, is still at the spot. The search is underway with the help of scuba divers, he said.
The two arrested accused, Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21), allegedly fired outside 58-year-old Khan's house at the Galaxy Apartment in the Bandra area of Mumbai on April 14 and then fled the spot on a motorbike.
Based on the technical surveillance, they were apprehended on April 16 from the premises of a temple at Mata No Madh near Bhuj town in Gujarat by joint teams of the Mumbai and Kutch police.
They were subsequently handed over to the Mumbai police for further investigation.
According to sources, the duo told the police during interrogation that they threw the weapon into the Tapi river from a railway bridge when they were fleeing to Bhuj in a train after reaching Surat by road from Mumbai following the firing incident.
Prima facie, the duo's main objective behind firing outside Khan's residence was to create "terror", police had said.
The Mumbai police have declared jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his younger brother Anmol Bishnoi as "wanted accused" in connection with the incident.
Gupta and Pal were allegedly receiving instructions from the two Bishnoi brothers, they have said.
While Lawrence Bishnoi is lodged in the Sabarmati central prison in Gujarat in another case, his brother is believed to be in Canada or the US, an official earlier said.
