Telangana phone tapping case: BJP MP testifies before SIT

Hyderabad, June 27 (IANS) BJP MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy on Friday testified before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the phone tapping during the previous BRS regime.

The Lok Sabha member from Chevella appeared before the investigating officers at Jubilee Hills Police Station. The SIT, which had requested Reddy to appear before it as a witness, recorded his statement.

Reddy was one of the politicians whose phones were reportedly tapped during the 2023 Assembly elections by the then government of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

The MP’s mobile number was found CDR list of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), which had kept surveillance on several leaders of opposition parties, journalists, businessmen and others.

Media personality Radhakrishna also appeared before the SIT on Friday to record his statement. The Managing Director of ‘Andhra Jyothi’ testified before Jubilee Hills ACP P. Venkatigiri.

The SIT on June 17 recorded a statement of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President B. Mahesh Kumar Goud.

Goud demanded that the then-ruling party leaders who ordered the tapping of phones of their political rivals and the IAS and IPS officers who obeyed the orders should be punished. He alleged that the phones of 650 Congress leaders were tapped by the previous government.

Goud, who served as the working president of the TPCC in November 2023, was allegedly a victim of illegal phone tapping.

The SIT intensified its probe after the return of former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief, T. Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the case, from the US early this month.

The SIT has questioned Prabhakar Rao several times. He had allegedly formed a Special Operations Team under a suspended DSP within the SIB to tap phones of leaders of the opposition parties and some other individuals to benefit the then-ruling political party and its leaders.

The phones of political leaders, businessmen, celebrities, journalists, members of civil society and even judges were allegedly tapped by the team.

The retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was grilled 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 all arrested in the case last year and were recently released on bail.

--IANS

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