When can phones be tapped forms crux of KCR’s questioning

SIT sources had earlier claimed they had evidence to show that at least 600 phone numbers tapped by the SIB under Prabhakar Rao were unrelated to Left Wing Extremism. The SIB was set up in 1990 to track and prevent the activities of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

KCR, who is learnt to have maintained that phone tapping was legal and sanctioned, was told that interception of calls can only be done with prior permission of the “head or the second senior-most office of the authorised security” as per the Indian Telegraph Rules 1951, sources said. As per the Indian Telegraph Act 1885’s Section 5(2), governments can intercept, detain, or disclose telegraph messages during public emergencies or for public safety, in the interests of India’s sovereignty, state security, friendly foreign relations, public order, or preventing incitement to crime, with reasons recorded in writing.

KCR was also asked why accused number one, Prabhakar Rao, was given an extension of his tenure as SIB chief, it is learnt. KCR was heading the intelligence wing as the chief minister of the state.

The BRS, meanwhile, accused the police of having a “predetermined agenda” of trying to frame KCR. KCR’s son and BRS working president KT Rama Rao wrote on X, “Looks like you have decided to be the judge and jury all by yourself Mr Commissioner (Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar). Please remember that you’re chairing the team that is investigating into an “alleged” crime which ultimately has to be proven in a court of law. I hope the honourable courts are taking notice of these extreme statements and high handed actions”.