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Exclusive: Revanth Reddy, his family and associates were ‘put under surveillance’ during BRS rule

Telangana phone tapping news: According to investigators, ‘profiles’ of Revanth’s family members, relatives, close personnel and party associates were allegedly put together – right from names and addresses to vehicle details and travel logs.

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Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy (File photo)

Telangana phone tapping news: Telangana’s current Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, his family members and associates were allegedly under constant surveillance when he was in the Opposition as the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president, a post he held between July 2021 and December 2023, The Indian Express has learnt, based on official documents and detailed conversations with investigators probing the snooping allegations when the Bharat Rashtra Samithi was in power.

The BRS ruled the state from the time Telangana was formed in 2014 to December 3, 2023, when the Congress stormed to power. As reported by The Indian Express, the state police is currently probing allegations that five top police and intelligence officers and a TV channel operator indulged in illegal surveillance of 600 individuals — using the state’s anti-Naxal surveillance mechanisms — to benefit the BRS.

Those allegedly snooped on included politicians, party workers, bureaucrats, businessmen, a sitting High Court judge, as well as their spouses, drivers and even childhood friends, it is learnt.

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Also Read | Telangana ‘snooping’: Top-secret letters by telecom providers blew lid off ‘illegal surveillance’ during BRS regime

In Revanth’s case, however, investigators familiar with the chargesheet say an entire module was allegedly dedicated to the illegal surveillance.

According to investigators, Praneeth Rao, the then DSP in the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) office, and his team allegedly “prepared profiles of family members, relatives and close personnel and party associates of A Revanth Reddy, and they used to call it RR (Revanth Reddy) Module”. Praneeth Rao is one of the five accused in the case and is currently out on bail. He allegedly acted on the instructions of former SIB chief Prabhakar Rao.

When contacted, Aakriti Jain, advocate on record for Prabhakar Rao, said he “stands by the arguments in the Special Leave Petition filed in the Supreme Court”. As per this petition, he is a decorated police officer who did not indulge in illegal surveillance.

The alleged snooping on Revanth and other political players — from the BJP, Congress and even the BRS — was done “to ensure BRS’s victory in the (Assembly) elections by monitoring potential political leaders of opponent parties as well as rebels in the BRS”, investigators said.

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According to the investigators, “profiles” of those in Revanth’s circle were allegedly put together — names, addresses, vehicle details and travel logs. As Opposition leader, Revanth was among the fiercest critics of former CM and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao and his family. KCR, as Chief Minister, also held the intelligence portfolio.

Also Read | 10 BRS MLAs who switched to Congress face disqualification, blow to Revanth Reddy

Revanth has, in several speeches, said he believes he was being surveilled.

According to investigators, it is also alleged that one of the key reasons to snoop on political opponents was to starve them and their parties of funding, particularly during poll season. It is alleged that the accused “passed on actionable information to political leaders and the district police for field actions, including targeted seizure of money of supporters of the opposition political party and leaders”, investigators said.

For instance, during the Munugode bypolls in 2022, Rs 1 crore in cash “belonging to certain leaders of the BJP from Karimnagar was seized”, investigators said.

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According to investigators, Hyderabad police claim to have at least 11 witnesses who listened to conversations of political leaders as part of the illegal surveillance. These witnesses worked as “loggers in the interception of telephones” and were supposed to surveil those linked to the CPI (Maoist) or Left Wing Extremists – the stated aim of the SIB – but were instead “assigned telephone numbers of persons unrelated to LWE, mostly belonging to political parties,” investigators said.

The BRS maintains that no illegal surveillance was carried out, with Dasoju Sravan Kumar, its MLC and spokesperson, telling The Indian Express that the Hyderabad police, “at the behest of the current Chief Minister, are on a futile fishing expedition which will not yield any results”.