No Interim Relief for Ex-SIB Chief in Phone-Tap Case
The Telangana High Court was on Tuesday not inclined to issue interim relief of ‘not to arrest’ to T. Prabhakar Rao, former SIB chief and prime accused in the phone-tapping case,. Rao is currently in the US.
Hyderabad:The Telangana High Court was on Tuesday not inclined to issue interim relief of ‘not to arrest’ to T. Prabhakar Rao, former SIB chief and prime accused in the phone-tapping case,. Rao is currently in the US.
Rao had recently filed an interim application seeking protection against arrest, in the main petition which he had filed two weeks seeking anticipatory bail in event of his arrest. Senior counsel T. Niranjan Reddy, appearing for Rao, requested the court to give the interim protection of ‘not to arrest’, after which the former official would return to India.
Senior counsel also said that the Supreme Court had granted relief to another accused, Sravan Kumar of iNews, from being arrested and he was now cooperating with the probe. Senior counsel sought similar relief to Rao. Once he was given relief from arrest, Rao was ready to appear before the investigation team and would cooperate, Niranjan Reddy said.
However, the single bench headed by Justice J. Sreenivas Rao made it clear that the interim application was not put forward before the bench. Further, the judge was not inclined to issue interim relief in the application and said that without hearing the contentions of the opposite side, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case, he could not issue orders.
The court directed the SIT to its by April 25, the next date of hearing.
Senior counsel Siddarth Luthra, appearing for the state government and the police, opposed the interim application and informed the court that Rao’s passport had been cancelled and a red corner notice issued for him. Luthra said that the police had taken all steps to bring Rao to Hyderabad, as he had been non-cooperative to the investigation by fleeing abroad before the registration of the FIR.
As Rao’s passport was cancelled, there was a chance of his deportation from the USA, senior counsel argued. “As the sword is hanging on his neck, the petitioner came with a proposal to not arrest or for grant of anticipatory bail,” Luthra said and requested the court to hear the main petition filed by Rao seeking anticipatory bail, instead of his interim application for not to arrest.
