The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation not to proceed with its probe into the alleged attempt to poach four Bharat Rashtra Samiti (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samiti) in 2022.

Posting the matter for hearing on July 31, a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice M M Sundresh orally observed that the Central Bureau of Investigation should not proceed in the matter.

The bench said it is making it very clear that the CBI probe should not be continued while it is seized of the matter.

The Telangana police informed that it has not handed over the case material to CBI.

The bench was hearing a plea by the Telangana Police against the State High Court order handing over the investigation to the CBI.

Appearing for the Telangana Police, senior advocate Dushyant Dave, strongly opposed the transfer of the probe to the CBI.

Earlier, Dave had argued that the consequences of transferring the case to CBI, which was allegedly under the Centre’s control, would be serious. He had submitted that it would go to the heart of democracy.

A division bench of the Telangana High Court had on February 6 upheld the earlier December 26, 2022 order of a single judge  transferring the case to the CBI. The Telangana Police had moved the apex court challenging this order.

The Telangana police has contended that the High Court did not appreciate that the CBI directly works under the Centre and is under the control of the office of the Prime Minister and the Home Ministry. The state government alleged the involvement of some top BJP leaders to poach its four MLAs, was an attempt to topple the government.

The plea said, “The Bharatiya Janata Party is in power in the Central Government and the allegations in the FIR are squarely and directly against the said party adopting illegal and criminal steps and methods to destabilize the Government of Telangana, the Hon’ble High Court therefore could not have entrusted the investigation to CBI in any case.”

The plea further added, “The High Court has unnecessarily drawn the conclusion that release of the CD by the Chief Minister on 03.11.2022 amounted to interference with the investigation and therefore concluded that investigation was not fair and violated the rights of accused for fair investigation.”

Three persons Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nandu Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, named as accused have already been granted bail.

According to the FIR, MLA Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused in October last year, offered him Rs 100 crore and in return he had to quit the BRS.

It was also alleged that they asked Reddy to bring some more BRS MLAs by offering Rs 50 crore each to join the BJP.

In November last year, the state government had formed an SIT, comprising state police officers to investigate the matter.