Hyderabad, Aug 5 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar will record his statement as a witness in the phone-tapping case on August 8.

He has requested the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the case, to examine him and his assistants at noon on August 8.

The SIT, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Jubilee Hills Division, Hyderabad, had issued a notice to Bandi Sanjay on July 17 and requested him to intimate the date and time of his convenience for the examination.

The ACP wanted to examine the MoS and his assistants on July 24. However, the ACP was requested to postpone it to July 28 due to the Parliament session.

In the latest communication to the SIT on Tuesday (August 5), Bandi Sanjay requested that the investigation officer examine them on August 8.

After receiving the SIT notice on July 17, Bandi Sanjay had said that former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) committed the crime of phone tapping, but he got the invitation as a witness.

The BJP leader alleged that his phones, his family and his staff’s phones were tapped.

The MP from Karimnagar assured the SIT that he would fully cooperate so that the truth comes out.

Leaders of some political parties, including Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Mahesh Kumar Goud, BJP MP and former minister Eatala Rajender, have already deposed before the SIT as witnesses.

The phone tapping allegations came to light in March last year, a few months after BRS lost power to the Congress party.

Police last year arrested four police officials in the case. They were later released on bail.

Former Chief of State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) Prabhakar Rao, who is the main accused in the case, returned from the United States in June at the direction of the Supreme Court. He has been summoned by SIT multiple times for questioning.

When BRS was in power, a team was allegedly constituted in SIB to tap the phones of leaders of opposition parties, dissidents within BRS, businesspersons, celebrities, journalists and even judges.

Earlier, Bandi Sanjay had asked the Congress government why it was not issuing notices to KCR.

He questioned why KCR, his son and BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao (KTR) have not been summoned on the basis of the statements of the accused.

–IANS

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