Telangana CM Revanth Reddy (right) and BRS working president KTR (left)
Hyderabad: Two days after former minister Harish Rao appeared before the Telangana Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the phone-tapping case, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) will appear for questioning on Friday, January 23.
KTR was served a notice on Thursday, January 22, by the investigation team asking him to appear at the Jubilee Hills Assistant Commissioner of Police’s office at 11 am.
On January 20, former irrigation minister and Siddipet MLA Harish Rao underwent a seven-hour interrogation by the nine-member SIT headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar. Later, he slammed Chief Minister Revanth Reddy over his “diversionary politics.”
Meanwhile, KTR alleged that the ongoing phone-tapping investigation is nothing but a diversionary tactic meant to shield administrative failures and protect CM Revanth’s position.
Addressing the media at Sircilla, he claimed that the SIT resembled a “daily television serial” rather than a genuine inquiry.
He asserted that notices were being issued selectively to opposition leaders purely for political mileage while senior police and intelligence officials who actually oversaw the system in the past were being kept away from questioning.
According to KTR, every government in the country relies on intelligence agencies for maintaining law and order and safeguarding stability. He argued that surveillance mechanisms have existed since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru and continue even today. Such systems, he maintained, function within the police and intelligence establishment and do not operate at the discretion of ministers or political executives.
He questioned why former intelligence chiefs and police directors — including current DGP Shivadhar Reddy, former DGP Mahender Reddy, ex-DGP and Home Secretary Jitender, and Ravi Gupta — were not being summoned by the SIT.
The BRS leader challenged the state government to produce at least one senior official who would publicly state that opposition leaders’ phones were not currently being tapped. He accused the administration of allowing selective leaks to the media while avoiding any formal press briefings or official clarifications.
He further accused the Chief Minister of using the controversy to buy time while travelling abroad, including visits to Davos and Harvard, claiming that instructions had been issued to keep the matter alive by sending notices to different BRS leaders on different days. Calling the case “baseless” and “trash,” KTR said even the investigating police officers were aware that nothing substantial existed.
The phone-tapping case, in which the then K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)-led BRS government has been accused of using police machinery to monitor the phone conversations of Opposition leaders during the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, has become a talking point for the ruling Congress.
The summons came after the Supreme Court on January 5 dismissed a petition filed by the Telangana government against Harish Rao, challenging the first information report (FIR) filed against him in the case. The top court declined to intervene in the orders given by the Telangana High Court, which ruled in his favour, even as it declined to overturn the high court’s decisions.
The BRS government has been accused of running a secret intelligence unit to profile over 600 people, including politicians, judges, actors, and other rivals. Over 1 lakh phone calls were allegedly e-tapped. Those who were reportedly monitored included Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, members of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, and even some BRS leaders.
The unit also allegedly used this data to extort crores of rupees from local businessmen. When the government changed, a criminal case was registered, and the officers panicked, destroying 17 hard drives and dumping them into the Musi river to bury the evidence.
Former Telangana intelligence chief T Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the case, was earlier questioned by the SIT.
This post was last modified on January 22, 2026 8:34 pm