Hyderabad: The police on Saturday booked former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao as the prime accused in the mass phone-tapping case. He is followed by suspended DSP D. Praneeth Rao, former Hyderabad task force DCP Radha Kishan Rao. Three other accused have been named: Additional SP Nayini Bhujanga Rao, former additional DSP intelligence M. Tirupatanna, and a private person.
Police have issued look-out notices for T. Prabhakar Rao, who is presently in the US, Radha Kishan Rao who is in the UK and iNews MD Aruvela Shravan Kumar Rao, who has fled to Nigeria, sources said. They had reportedly fled abroad after the case was opened up on Praneeth Rao, who is a relative of Prabhakar Rao.
Police have issued notices to their family members as a legal procedure and directed them to inform the absconding officers to surrender to avoid legal problems, sources said.
Bhujanga Rao and Tirupatanna, who were arrested on Saturday, were remanded to the Chanchalguda central jail. They are likely to be suspended.
The police said Radha Kishan Rao was named in the suicide note of Congress leader, Sridhar Reddy, in 2014, when the former was ACP Malkagiri. Sridhar Reddy had blamed Radha Kishan Rao's harassment for his decision to end his life by suicide.
The Uppal police had registered a case of abetment to suicide under Section 306 of the IPC but Radha Kishan Rao had managed to get it closed. “Police are likely to re-open the case,” the sources disclosed.
Shravan Rao, who is accused of maintaining an illegal server, is also associated with Udbhav Media Private Limited. Apart from setting up a secret war room at a school in Jubilee Hills, the police said Shravan Rao had installed Israel-made tapping equipment at his house in Jubilee Hills.
During the searches at Shravan Rao's house and office, the police reportedly seized technical data, documents, diaries with contact numbers of politicians and police officials, and call data records of over 200 political leaders from the BJP, Congress, TD, and the BRS, including then Opposition leader A. Revanth Reddy and his family.
The police in searches on other officers also got evidence that the accused had tapped phones of not only state political leaders but also the central ministers, the sources said.
Police report
The following statements by snooping-accused police officials were recorded in the remand report submitted to the court.
The three officers including Praneeth revealed that they acted on Prabhakar's instructions.
Praneeth Rao:
(Former SIB chief) Prabhakar Rao told me toget engaged in phone tapping, he would take care of my promotion
Tapped phones numbers given by (additional SP) Nayini Bhujanga Rao and (former additional DSP intelligence) M. Thirupatanna
During the Assembly elections, we tapped phones of hundreds of political leaders, monitored fund-raising by different parties.
Tapped phones of businessmen, well-known persons in society.
Destroyed the main device and hard disks containing snooping data using a cutter.
Broke hard disk devices and threw them in the Musi river, burnt documents in two war rooms.
Additional SP Nayini Bhujanga Rao
Tapped the phone numbers given by a key leader of BRS.
Sent the numbers given by the BRS leader to Praneeth Rao from time to time.
The information given by Praneeth Rao was passed on to BRS leader.
Forwarded numbers given by (former task force DCP) Radha Kishan Rao to Praneeth Rao and (former additional DSP intelligence) Tirupatanna.
