Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday declined to grant interim protection from arrest to former state intelligence chief T Prabhakar Rao, who is facing allegations of phone tapping during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.
Justice J Sreenivas Rao heard arguments from both sides after Prabhakar Rao’s counsel, T Niranjan Reddy, sought a week’s time for his client to appear before the police.
Reddy argued that the police had declared Rao an absconder, cancelled his passport, and secured a red corner notice against him, despite Rao’s willingness to return from the United States and cooperate with the investigation.
He cited a Supreme Court order in a similar case involving another accused, Sravan Kumar, who was permitted to appear before the police without facing coercive measures.
Addressing the allegations, Reddy denied claims that Rao had tapped the phones of 19 Telangana High Court judges. “All that Prabhakar did was to obtain the call data of one High Court judge and analyse it after receiving some complaints. We are entitled to do so. Collecting call data of judges should not be equated with phone tapping,” he stated.
The counsel requested the court to instruct the police not to arrest Rao until he could present himself for questioning.
Representing the state, senior counsel Sidhartha Luthra countered that Rao had fled the country and only sought to return after his passport was cancelled. “What is inevitable now is being sought to be shown as voluntary,” Luthra argued.
After hearing both sides, Justice Sreenivas Rao refused to grant any interim relief to Prabhakar Rao and adjourned the matter to April 25.
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