Hyderabad, Jan 19 (IANS) In a key development, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the Telangana phone tapping case, has summoned former minister and BRS leader T. Harish Rao.

The SIT had issued notice to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader, directing him to appear before investigating officers at Jubilee Hills Police Station at 11 a.m. on Tuesday (January 20).

This is the first time that a top BRS leader has been summoned by the SIT for questioning since the investigation began in 2024.

Notice to Harish Rao has been issued after days of speculations that BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and BRS working president and former minister K. T. Rama Rao (KTR) will be summoned for questioning about phone tapping during BRS rule.

The phone tapping case surfaced in March 2024. Deputy Superintendent of Police D Praneeth Rao was the first to be arrested.

Further investigations revealed a large-scale surveillance operation targeting various individuals, including political opponents, businessmen, journalists, and even judges.

The police have named six accused in the case, including former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao, DSP Praneeth Rao, Additional SPs Thirupathanna and N. Bhujanga Rao and former DCP Radha Kishan Rao, besides Sravan Kumar, a television channel owner.

Last month, the SIT questioned former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T. Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the case.

The former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, questioned by the SIT for two weeks after the Supreme Court had ordered him to surrender, was released on December 26.

The nine-member fresh SIT constituted by the Telangana government on December 18 questioned Prabhakar Rao.

Meanwhile, reacting to SIT notice to Harish Rao, KTR termed it an act of Vendetta by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

KTR alleged that Revanth Reddy rattled by the exposure of the coal scam involving his brother-in-law Srujan Reddy, has resorted to “attention diversion politics”.

He said this was done solely to divert public attention from the scam. He accused the Congress government of taking political vendetta to its extreme limits.

KTR recalled that the Supreme Court itself had clearly stated that there was no substance in the phone-tapping case and that it was nothing but an act of political vendetta.

Even after the apex court quashed the case and brought an end to this political drama, the A. Revanth Reddy government issuing fresh notices to Harish Rao now clearly exposes how far the government has stooped, he criticised.

–IANS

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