Hyderabad:
The snooping case that has broken out in Telangana – which could become a major issue in next month’s Lok Sabha elections – witnessed further revelations after one of the arrested police officers – Radhakrishna Rao – alleged that cash was transported in official vehicles in the 2018 and 2023 parliamentary elections. .
According to the arrest report filed by the police, the arrested police officer said that Praneeth Rao, Bhujanga Rao, Tirupatanna and Venugopal Rao, led by the then State Intelligence Bureau chief T Prabhakar Rao, conspired to ensure that the BRS in Telangana power would remain.
Radhakrisha Rao reportedly gave the Dubbak and Munugode by-polls as an example.
He said that Rs 3.5 crore was seized from people associated with Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy ahead of the last elections. Mr Reddy contested the 2022 by-poll on a BJP ticket. He lost to BRS’s Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy but jumped to Congress for the 2023 elections and won the seat.
In the 2020 Dubbak foray, the BJP’s Raghunandan Rao defeated the BRS’ Solipeta Reddy. According to Radhakrishna Rao, Rs 1 crore was seized from a person running a chit fund company linked to the BJP leader based on intercepted calls. In 2023, he lost the seat to Kotha Prabhakar Reddy of the BRS.
The arrested police officer, Radhakrishna Rao, said that “officials concerned talked about ensuring that the BRS (earlier called Telangana Rashtra Samithi) would remain in power”.
Mr. Rao served as Deputy Commissioner of Police in the city task force. He had managed to get two extensions of three years each from August 2020 when he retired.
However, he was moved ahead of the elections on the complaint and recommendation of Sandeep Shandilya, who was appointed as the Hyderabad Police Commissioner when the Model Code of Conduct was in force ahead of the Assembly election.
T Prabhakar Rao has been named as the prime suspect and a lookout is expected. He is currently in the United States, but sources told WhatsNew2Day that he will soon join the investigation.
Mr Rao, who was also earlier Chief Security Officer to former Chief Minister – K Chandrashekar Rao aka KCR, reportedly told the investigating authorities that he was acting on instructions from Prabhakar Rao.
Radhakrishna Rao was arrested – he too was given a lookout notice – after being questioned at a police station in Hyderabad’s Banjara Hills.
In the remand report presented by the authorities, Mr. Rao gave examples of specific seizures and, significantly, claimed that he had spied on opposition leaders on the orders of a member of KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi, which has dominated Telangana politics since the state was formed in 2014.
However, the BRS was defeated by the Congress in the Assembly elections last year.
The Telangana phone tapping case involves collecting electronic data not only for political intelligence but also to blackmail leaders and even private companies and Tollywood celebrities.
Congress leader N Uttam Kumar Reddy told WhatsNew2Day that all this happened with the connivance of the leadership of the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government. “It is only a matter of time before the BRS leaders come under the ambit of the investigation,” Reddy said.
Several other police officers in Telangana are under investigation in connection with this case.
The list of people whose devices were allegedly monitored includes Prime Minister Revanth Reddy and members of the BJP and Congress, as well as those from KCR’s party.
Sources say more than one lakh phone calls have been tapped.
Meanwhile, a Congress leader from Telangana’s Sircilla, KK Mahender Reddy, lodged a complaint with Hyderabad’s top cop earlier today. He said he suspected his phone, and those of family members and associates, had been tapped. He asked the police to issue a notice and question former minister and top BRS leader KT Rama Rao, who had won the Assembly elections from the region.