KCR Agrees to SIT Questioning at Banjara Hills Residence Sunday
KCR decided to be available for SIT officials at Nandinagar following detailed discussions with senior party leaders and legal experts at his farmhouse in Erravalli village in Siddipet
Hyderabad: BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said on Sunday that he would make himself available at 3 pm on Sunday at his Nandinagar residence in Banjara Hills for examination by the SIT that is probing the telephone tapping case.
Following the notice pasted on his house in Banjara Hills on late on Friday evening asking him to be prepared for questioning at 3 pm, on Sunday, Rao, in his reply, said the way the SIT proceeded with the second notice to him would not stand legal scrutiny. Pasting the notice on the wall of his house “is no notice in the eye of the law,” he said.
In his six-page reply to the notice which cited several Supreme Court and High Court verdicts on the manner of serving of such notices, Rao said the Jubilee Hills’ assistant commissioner of police (ACP) had no jurisdiction to issue him a notice in the first place as the house did not fall under the Jubilee Hills police limits. He said as per the provisions of the law, the SIT was “duty bound to record my statement at my place of residing, i.e. Erravalli and no other place.”
However, Rao added, notwithstanding the legal position, “I being a former Chief Minister for the State of Telangana and present Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and also as a responsible citizen of this country in order to assist the department in the investigation of the subject crime, would be available for my examination at 3 pm on 01.02.2026 at Nandinagar residence as you are keen to record my statement there only (sic).”
Rao made it clear that the law granted him the freedom to “simply ignore” the notice, and cited court cases to underline his point on how the SIT had violated various provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code under which it issued the notice and the manner it was sought to be served.
He said in his reply on Saturday, “If the letter is sent by you and it is pasted on the wall as per your instructions, I take strong objection to the same and it indicates that you have no respect for the Constitution of India, the law and Hon'ble Supreme Court Judgements.”
Rao said he had, in his response on January 29 to an earlier notice, made it clear that all future notices should be sent to his Erravalli residence, as it is an “undisputed fact" that “I am residing at Erravalli for the last several years and it is the place of my residence.” The police, he said, was “duty bound by the command of the law to record my statement if required at the place at where I am residing… and no other place.”
As per Section 160 of CrPC under which the notice was served, any person aged more than 65 years cannot be asked to visit the police station and his statement “shall be recorded only at the place of residing i.e. the place at which the concerned person is residing at the time of giving notice”, Rao noted. He said the address recorded in election affidavit or Assembly records had no relevance with respect to the present instance.
Stating that the Jubilee Hills ACP in issuing the notice in the manner it was done had “deliberately and intentionally chose to ignore the mandate of law and Supreme Court directions in the matter,” Rao said that the official could “be charged with contempt of Supreme Court” as its “directions are the law of the land as per Article 141 of the Constitution of India.”
Continuing on the theme of the SIT picking the issue of his address, Chandrashekar Rao said in the case of T. Harish Rao to whom a notice under Section 160 was issued with respect to the same case, it was served to him at Hyderabad even though as per the election affidavit the place of residence was shown in Siddipet town. “This shows your double standards in the matter and shifting of your position,” he said.
The BRS on Saturday called on all its leaders and cadre to organise protests across the state on Sunday against the state government and the move to question its president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in the phone tapping case. The protests will include burning of effigies symbolizing the government, and rallies and wearing of black badges in all the gram panchayats, and black flag protest marches, two-wheeler rallies and burning effigies in municipalities, and rasta rokos, BRS leaders said.
Senior party leader and former minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, addressing a press meet, condemned the issue of notice to Chandrashekar Rao and called on party workers to conduct themselves peacefully during the protests.
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, taking strong objection to the SIT pasting the notice on Chandrashekar Rao’s Nandinagar residence on Friday evening, questioned the move. “KCR himself shared his residential address in his reply to the police earlier. Yet, the investigating officials pasted a copy of the notice at his residence at night when none was staying in the house. This is Revanth Reddy deriving devilish pleasure,” Rama Rao said.
The notice on Friday was the second from the SIT. After the first notice was issued by the SIT on Thursday, Chandrashekar Rao, exercising his right as a person over 65 years of age, informed the police that since the law permits such persons to be questioned at their place of residence, the SIT can come to his house in Erravalli.
After the second notice, Chandrashekar Rao is learnt to have discussed the pros and cons with senior party leaders including Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, along with legal experts and took the call to be available to the SIT on Sunday at his Nandinagar residence. Chandrashekar Rao, in his previous reply to SIT, had assured it of his cooperation.
The case deals with alleged tapping of phones of select people when the BRS was in power, and alleged misuse of the information gathered from tapped conversations.
Chandrashekar Rao, as president of BRS and former chief minister, is the most senior leader from the BRS to be questioned as a witness. So far, Harish Rao, Rama Rao, and J. Santosh Rao from the BRS have been questioned by the SIT as witnesses in connection with the case.
