The Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the Telangana police tapped the mobile phones of approximately 1,200 individuals, including political leaders, social activists, members of student organizations, businesspeople, judges, lawyers, and journalists during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime led by K. Chandrasekhar Rao. This was confessed by a suspended deputy superintendent of police, Duggyala Praneeth Rao, to the police.
Praneeth Rao, who led the special operations team (SOT) in the SIB, made his confession statement before the Panjagutta police on March 13, which became public on Wednesday.
Similar confession statements from retired deputy commissioner of police P. Radha Kishan Rao and additional superintendents of police N. Bhujanga Rao and M. Thirupathanna have previously revealed details about the telephone tapping case. The former SIB chief, T. Prabhakar Rao, who is the prime accused, remains at large.
Praneeth Rao had been part of Prabhakar Rao’s team in the SIB since 2017 and received an out-of-turn promotion to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in March 2023. He was made in charge of the SOT ahead of the assembly elections in Telangana in November 2023.
In his confession statement, reviewed by HT, Praneeth Rao admitted that he and his team of 56 monitored opposition leaders and their funders, and intercepted vehicles transferring money. “We prepared profiles of around 1,200 persons, mostly political rivals of the BRS, with the help of a technological tool provided by a private firm, M/s Convergence Innovation Labs, Hyderabad. We reported directly to Prabhakar Rao, who provided all necessary support,” he said.
He confessed that the targets for profiling or surveillance were assigned by Prabhakar Rao and retired additional Superintendent of Police Venugopal Rao.
After the Congress government led by A. Revanth Reddy was formed on December 7, the intelligence department informed the chief minister about the missing data from computers and hard disks, which had been replaced with new ones.
An internal probe was ordered, leading to Praneeth Rao’s suspension and the Panjagutta police registering a criminal case against him on March 10. By March 13, police arrested Praneeth Rao, and based on his information, subsequently arrested Radha Kishan Rao, Bhujanga Rao, and Tirupathanna over the next two weeks.
The arrested officers are in judicial custody, while Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused, fled to the United States, prompting a lookout notice against him.
Telangana Congress official spokesperson Ch. Dayakar stated that the state government will not spare anyone involved in the phone tapping during the previous BRS regime. The party has urged the chief minister to dismiss all implicated officers and seize their assets. He questioned how the alleged phone tapping occurred without the knowledge of the top leaders in the previous government.
