Hyderabad, June 15 (IANS) Intensifying its probe into the phone tapping case during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana Police on Sunday began recording statements of the victims.

The SIT officials have summoned political leaders, businessmen and journalists whose phones were allegedly tapped.

The investigators will be recording their statements on the basis of evidence found so far during the probe.

The SIT has once again summoned former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T. Prabhakar Rao for questioning.

Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the case who returned from the United States last week, has been directed to appear before the SIT on June 17. He has so far appeared three times before the SIT officials.

He appeared before the investigating officers at the Jubilee Hills police station in Hyderabad for a third time on Saturday and was grilled for about nine hours.

Prabhakar Rao, who was accused of orchestrating the illegal surveillance of several prominent individuals, has reportedly confessed that a special team was constituted in the SIB to tap the phones of politicians who were working against BRS.

The team snooped on the leaders of Congress and the BJP. Congress leaders whose phones were tapped included Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, who is now the revenue minister.

The SIB tapped the phones of at least 30 people associated with Srinivasa Reddy’s construction and real estate business.

The retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer also told investigators that they snooped on some of the politicians on the suspicion of their links with the Maoists.

He was questioned based on the statements of former deputy superintendent of police D. Praneeth Rao, retired deputy commissioner of police P. Radha Kishan Rao and additional superintendents of police N. Bhujanga Rao and M. Thirupathanna, who were earlier arrested in the case.

These officials had earlier told the SIT that they had acted on the instructions of Prabhakar Rao, who was heading the SIB.

After the defeat of BRS in the 2023 elections, Prabhakar Rao resigned from his post. Hours later, several hard disks from the SIB office reportedly went missing. Praneeth Rao destroyed these hard disks and disposed of them in the Musi River.

Praneeth Rao told the SIT that he destroyed the hard disks at the direction of Prabhakar Rao. The SIT succeeded in retrieving some data from the destroyed hard disks.

The SIT officials are also likely to question Prabhakar Rao and Praneeth Rao together to further speed up the probe.

The phones of political leaders, businessmen, celebrities, journalists, members of civil society and even judges were allegedly tapped under Prabhakar Rao’s direction.

The allegations came to light in March last year with the arrest of Praneeth Rao following a complaint from his superior, D. Ramesh, Additional SP with the SIB.

Prabhakar Rao had left for the US just before the case was registered against him.

The Supreme Court on May 29 directed authorities to arrange an emergency travel document to enable Prabhakar Rao to return.

The apex court passed the order on a petition by Prabhakar, challenging the Telangana High Court order dismissing his petition for anticipatory bail.

The bench also barred police from taking any coercive step against Rao till further orders.

As per an undertaken given to the Supreme Court, Prabhakar Rao returned to India on June 8 and appeared before the SIT the next day.

–IANS

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