Telangana withdraws general consent to CBI

Hyderabad, October 30

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has withdrawn general consent given to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the state, joining a host of non-BJP ruled states to deny the central agency a blanket permission to probe cases.

Though the order was issued two months ago, it did not figure in the public domain until Saturday when the Additional Advocate General informed the Telangana High Court, during arguments on a petition filed by the BJP seeking a CBI probe into the TRS MLAs poaching case, that the general consent for CBI was withdrawn by the state.

The development comes in the midst of a war of words between the ruling TRS and the BJP over several issues in recent past that has led to acrimony between the two parties in the poll-bound state.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao today launched a frontal attack on the saffron party, accusing it of trying to destabilise his government by trying to “buy” his party MLAs. Calling the BJP leaders “Delhi brokers”, he used the political stage at Munugode to level charges against the BJP, accusing it of bribing four TRS MLAs by offering to pay Rs 100 crore. He accused the BJP of trying to “buy” 20-30 TRS MLAs to topple the government.

Rao claimed no weaver in the state would vote for the BJP for imposing GST on the handloom.