As Telangana phone tapping case unravels, ex-intel bureau chief is named as prime accused

According to investigators, former SIB chief, retired IPS officer T Prabhakar Rao, who has been named as “accused number 1” by the Hyderabad Police, failed to “draw the line” when taking or implementing orders from the party in power. “Officers who directly worked for Rao performed tasks which were not expected of them,” a probe officer said, detailing that these tasks involved alleged phone tapping, collecting intelligence on movements of certain people, and surveillance of opposition leaders, activists and political critics.

“As Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Intelligence Wing, Rao should have put his foot down and rejected certain orders given to him by ruling party leaders,” one official said. The SIB has a powerful anti-Naxal wing, and electronic surveillance tools generally used to track Naxal leaders were allegedly used in these operations on civilians and politicians.

As Rao’s alleged involvement repeatedly came up and he was mentioned several times by suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police D Praneeth Rao and Additional Superintendents of Police N Bhujanga Rao and M Thirupatanna, who were arrested on Saturday, officials of the Panjagutta police station have issued a look out circular (LOC) for Rao and former DCP and OSD (Task Force) P Radha Kishan Rao.

After issuing the LOCs on Saturday, both have been named as accused in the case. It is alleged that these officers prepared notes based on data collected through alleged phone tapping and submitted the reports to the BRS leadership. A surveillance operation was also allegedly carried out on the activities of the four BRS MLAs, who had claimed that persons associated with the BJP offered them bribes to quit BRS and join BJP, for several days in October 2022.

Officials said the names of Prabhakar Rao and Radha Kishan Rao were initially not in the FIR and they wanted to question them regarding the phone tapping allegations as well as destruction of data stored on over 45 hard drives in the SIB’s computers. However, things changed with the arrest of Bhujanga Rao and Thirupatanna who, officials said, purportedly told investigators that they took orders from Prabhakar Rao, and Kishan Rao was also involved in the operations.

The officers whose names have been linked to the scandal have had illustrious careers. In August 2023, Thirupatanna was awarded the Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation. Recently, he was posted as Additional DCP of City Security Wing, Hyderabad, while Bhujang Rao was posted as Additional SP of Bhupalpally district when they were arrested in connection with the case.

Sources said that as the counting of votes progressed on December 3 and it became clear that BRS was losing and Congress would form the government in the assembly polls, these officers allegedly conspired to destroy evidence of their activities, including computer hard drives. Praneeth Rao, investigators alleged, went to the SIB office on December 4 and removed and destroyed the hard drives. The same day, Prabhakar Rao and Kishan Rao quit their posts. Prabhakar Rao had retired in June 2020 after 29 years of service, and in November last year, the BRS government had appointed him as OSD, Intelligence (SIB).

Sources said that the LOCs were issued as it is suspected that Prabhakar Rao went to the US while Radha Kishan Rao went to the UK after the arrest of D Praneeth Rao. The managing director of a media company is also being sought by the Panjagutta Police for questioning in this case. Police searched the residences of all three over the weekend.

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