Hyderabad: Telangana minister for Roads, Buildings, and Cinematography Komatireddy Venkat Reddy remarked that former minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K T Rama Rao (KTR) will be jailed for 10 years if the allegations in the phone tapping case are proven.
“KTR himself agreed that phone tapping took place. He said that two or three individuals’ phones have been tapped. A Suo moto case should be filed based on his remarks. It is known now that the phones of individuals working in cinema have also been tapped. Officials who tapped phones for KCR are much more dangerous than Kasim Rizvi,” he remarked, during a chit chat with journalists on Friday, March 29.
KTR’s remarks
Refuting allegations around phone tapping, KTR on Wednesday, March 27, had said that if any phone tapping occurred, it might have been limited to one or two individuals who were involved in wrongful activities.
KTR emphasized that such actions, if taken by the police, are part of their routine work.
He dismissed the allegations of widespread phone tapping, suggesting that the issue is being exaggerated by political opponents to divert attention from unfulfilled promises and failures in governance.
Phone tapping case
The case involves accusations of phone tapping of opposition leaders during the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) government’s tenure, leading to arrests of several key figures, including police officers like Praneeth Rao and Bhujanga Rao.
The controversy has escalated into a political slugfest, with demands for thorough investigations from various political parties, including the Congress and BJP, who claim their phones were tapped during the BRS regime.
Political parties including the ruling Congress have alleged that the phone tapping occurred with orders from former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for alleged snooping on his successor Revanth Reddy, with reports of a phone-tapping machine being imported from Israel for surveillance purposes.
Investigation on
As per the latest developments in the case, a former DCP of the Commissioner’s Task Force, a wing of Hyderabad Police, and another police official were questioned by the police in connection with a case of phone tapping and destroying certain computer systems and official data.
“They are being interrogated,” a senior police official told PTI on Thursday, amid reports of their arrest.
On March 23, two additional superintendents of police, who were accused of colluding with suspended DSP of the SIB D Praneeth Rao, were arrested.
Praneeth Rao was accused of erasing intelligence information from various electronic gadgets as well as phone tapping during the previous BRS government.
On March 13, Praneeth Rao, accused of developing profiles of several persons and monitoring them clandestinely, without authorisation and illegally, besides destroying certain computer systems and official data, was arrested.
LoC’s issued
As part of an investigation into the case, the police had recently issued a lookout circular (LOC) against former SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao and then deputy commissioner of police at the Commissioner’s Task Force P Radhakrishna and a senior executive of a Telugu TV channel.
The lookout circular was issued against them as they were not available for investigation in the case and were allegedly not cooperating, police had said, adding they are suspected to have gone abroad.
Praneeth Rao was recently suspended by the Telangana government. He was a DSP during the previous BRS dispensation and was subsequently working in the office of the Director General of Police (DGP). He was earlier accused of tapping the phones of opposition party leaders.
Based on a complaint filed by an additional superintendent of police of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) on March 10, a case was registered against Praneeth Rao and others at Panjagutta police station here on charges of criminal breach of trust by a public servant, causing disappearance of evidence, and criminal conspiracy and other sections of IPC, PDPP Act and IT Act-2000.
The case was registered against them for allegedly destroying certain computer systems and official data of the SIB, including those obtained by him clandestinely and illegally in collusion with others with an intention to make wrongful gain, the police had said.
They were also accused of developing profiles of some persons and monitoring them, causing disappearance of physical and electronic records of the SIB, and copying intelligence information into personal drives, police said.
(With excerpts from PTI)
