This is an archive article published on March 13, 2024
Suspended Telangana DSP accused of tapping BRS opponents’ phones arrested
Kumar regularly copied intelligence data onto his personal pen drives, and is suspected of using the official intelligence-gathering machinery to profile several people, including the BRS’s opponents, officials said.
3 min readHyderabadUpdated: Mar 20, 2024 08:17 AM IST
According to sources, Kumar is suspected of having been involved in the tapping of phones of Opposition leaders and others when the BRS was in power. (File Photo)
The Hyderabad Police on Wednesday arrested a suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) who is suspected of having tapped the phones of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s (BRS) political opponents while the party was in power in Telangana.
DSP Dugyala Praneeth Kumar had been posted with the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) when the alleged offences took place. He was suspended earlier this month after it came to light that he allegedly erased intelligence data from the SIB’s hard drives after Congress won the Assembly election last year.
He is also accused of having copied intelligence data to his personal devices. He was booked last week on charges of tampering with evidence, breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy.
Kumar was taken into custody on Tuesday night and arrested on Wednesday following questioning overnight, officials said.
According to sources, Kumar is suspected of having been involved in the tapping of phones of Opposition leaders and others when the BRS was in power. SIB Additional Superintendent of Police D Ramesh had lodged the first complaint against Kumar after finding that he was involved in the alleged phone tapping and copying of data between 2018 and 2023.
Kumar regularly copied intelligence data onto his personal pen drives, and is suspected of using the official intelligence-gathering machinery to profile several people, including the BRS’s opponents, officials said.
After the Congress came to power in December last year following the BRS’s defeat in Assembly elections, he allegedly tried to destroy evidence of these activities.
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According to the complaint against him, Kumar entered his office on the night of December 4, a day after the counting of votes in the Assembly election ended, and switched off all the CCTV cameras before destroying the hard drives and other disks that contained intelligence data collected over many years. He then allegedly installed new, blank hard drives.
After this came to light, the Congress government transferred him to Sircilla district and asked senior SIB officers to conduct a probe.
An FIR has been registered against him at the Panjagutta police station in Hyderabad. He was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, banker, merchant or agent), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupee or upwards), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy). He was also booked under various sections of the Prevention of Destruction of Public Records Act, 1984, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Sreenivas Janyala is a Deputy Associate Editor at The Indian Express, where he serves as one of the most authoritative voices on the socio-political and economic landscape of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. With a career spanning over two decades in mainstream journalism, he provides deep-dive analysis and frontline reporting on the intricate dynamics of South Indian governance.
Expertise and Experience
Regional Specialization: Based in Hyderabad, Sreenivas has spent more than 20 years documenting the evolution of the Telugu-speaking states. His reporting was foundational during the historic Telangana statehood movement and continues to track the post-bifurcation development of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Key Coverage Beats: His extensive portfolio covers a vast spectrum of critical issues:
High-Stakes Politics: Comprehensive tracking of regional powerhouses (BRS, TDP, YSRCP, and Congress), electoral shifts, and the political careers of figures like K. Chandrashekar Rao, Chandrababu Naidu, and Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Internal Security & Conflict: Authoritative reporting on Left-Wing Extremism (LWE), the decline of the Maoist movement in former hotbeds, and intelligence-led investigations into regional security modules.
Governance & Infrastructure: Detailed analysis of massive irrigation projects (like Kaleshwaram and Polavaram), capital city developments (Amaravati), and the implementation of state welfare schemes.
Crisis & Health Reporting: Led the publication's ground-level coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in South India and major industrial incidents, such as the Vizag gas leak.
Analytical Depth: Beyond daily news, Sreenivas is known for his "Explained" pieces that demystify complex regional disputes, such as river water sharing and judicial allocations between the sister states. ... Read More
