Hyderabad: TD leaders from TS and AP on Thursday bitterly criticised Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the alleged tapping of phones of AP ministers and government officers.
They alleged that Mr Rao would meet the same fate as former Karnataka chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde and former US President Richard Nixon.
Telangana TD president L. Ramana and AP minister Palle Raghunath Reddy said the Telangana government had issued orders on May 23 to tap the phones of around 200 Telangana TD leaders.
They alleged that Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau chief V.C. Sajjanar, Intelligence chief Sivadhar Reddy and home secretary Venkatesam had signed on the phone tapping orders and claimed to have evidence with them.
Mr Ramana alleged that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao had asked senior officials to go on long leave after the phone tapping issue broke out. He said that cellular service providers must regain credibility credibility by cooperating in the judicial enquiry and providing call data details.
Minister Raghunatha Reddy said the Centre should intervene on the phone tapping issue and take necessary action.
(Hegde quit office in 1988 following allegations of phone tapping. Nixon had to resign following the Watergate scandal where the Democratic office was broken into, and the Nixon administration attempted to cover its involvement.)
