“If the probe is honest, these officers should be questioned first. Instead, political leaders are being targeted and an endless story is being spun for time pass,” Rama Rao alleged.
Hyderabad: Terming the investigation in the phone-tapping case of the BRS government tenure as “baseless” and “trash”, party working president and former minister K.T. Rama Rao wondered how surveillance by the government of the day amounted to crime. He asked that if the previous BRS government had violated norms, then DGP B. Shivadhar Reddy should have been in the dock.
Addressing the media in Sircilla, after news became public that he was summoned for questioning in the phone-tapping case, Rama Rao questioned why former intelligence chiefs and DGPs, including Shivadhar Reddy, former police chiefs Mahender Reddy and Jitender, and other police officials, were not being summoned by the Special Investigation Team probing the phone-tapping operation.
“If the probe is honest, these officers should be questioned first. Instead, political leaders are being targeted and an endless story is being spun for time pass,” Rama Rao alleged.
The BRS leader alleged that instead of addressing governance issues, the administration was constantly rolling out new controversies ranging from the Kaleshwaram irregularities to the Formula-E payment case, sheep procurement scheme and now phone-tapping, merely to divert public attention.
Rama Rao emphasised that surveillance mechanisms existed for national security and maintenance of public order and not for partisan politics. “Every government in the country relies on intelligence agencies for maintaining law and order and safeguarding stability. The surveillance mechanism has existed since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru and continues even today under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These systems do not operate at the discretion of ministers or political executives,” he argued.
