The investigation into the alleged tapping of phones belonging to several political leaders and others ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections in Telangana has widened, with officers of the Special Investigation Team claiming that call data records (CDR) and internet protocol data records (IPDR) of thousands were also accessed illegally by the police’s Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) at the time.
Sources in the SIT said police will now file a supplementary chargesheet in the case because of “fresh evidence” and “new information” received based on “revelations” by the accused.
Those accused in the tapping case are former SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao, News managing director Aruvela Shravan Kumar Rao, Deputy Superintendent of Police D Praneeth Rao, Additional Superintendents of Police M Thirupathanna and N Bhujanga Rao, former Superintendent of Police P Radhakishan Rao, and a TV channel owner, A Shravan Kumar Rao.
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The case refers to the period when the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, under the leadership of then chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, was in power. In recent days, the SIT probing the case has called some members of KCR’s family for questioning.
The first to be called was former minister Harish Rao, who is KCR’s nephew, and the next was KCR’s son and former minister K Taraka Rama Rao (KTR). On Tuesday, the SIT questioned J Santosh Rao, a former MP and another nephew of KCR.
BRS said in a statement that the SIT notices were issued as an “attention diversion” tactic, and that there was no evidence against any member of the BRS in this “false case”.
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Allegations of phone tapping first surfaced in March 2024, when an Additional Superintendent of Police of the SIB lodged a complaint at Hyderabad’s Punjagutta police station, accusing DSP Praneeth Rao of using illegal means to gather intelligence.
The SIB was set up in 1990 to track and prevent the activities of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). However, SIT sources have previously told The Indian Express that there is evidence that at least 600 phone numbers tapped by SIB under Prabhakar Rao were not related to Left-wing extremism.
“Now, there is more evidence in the case. Apart from tapping phones of at least 600 people, call data records and internet protocol data records of thousands were allegedly accessed by the SIB illegally. This also amounts to illegal surveillance, and hence the scope of the supplementary chargesheet will be wider than the six accused in the current case,” an SIT source claimed.
