Hyderabad: The Punjagutta police registered a case against a recently-suspended special intelligence bureau (SIB) officer for tampering with evidence.
Dugyala Praneet Rao was suspended on March 4 over alleged spying charges and power misuse. The officer was a former SIB deputy superintendent of police, during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.
According to the police, Rao deleted data and damaged computers and hard disks after switching off the power supply.
The police invoked sections 409 (wrongful taking of movable property without the owner’s consent), 427 (mischief causing damage), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120 (B) (party to a criminal conspiracy) of IPC, and other sections of PDPP (Prevention of Damage to Public Property) Act and IT Act against him.
Praneet Kumar is alleged to have tapped phones of Congress leaders including CM Revanth Reddy during BRS rule from 2018 onwards until the change of regime under instructions of the then Chief Minister.
He was posted as Inspector in SIB in 2018 but enjoyed a considerable clout. The government gave him an accelerated promotion and made him DSP in 2023. He had taken two rooms under his control and maintained utmost secrecy in his operations.
The SIB was formed to gather intelligence about Left Wing Extremists and share the actionable information with the police higher ups for planning operations.
Further investigations are underway.
