The SIT officers also would verify the mobile phones of Prabhakar Rao to get clues in the phone tapping case.
Hyderabad:It was a tough time for the former SIB chief and retired IPS officer T. Prabhakar Rao after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials put evidence before him establishing the phone tapping of several profiles. Even though Prabhakar Rao tried to explain and avoid answers, the SIT officials are understood to have obtained leads by recording his statements during a nine-hour-long questioning on Wednesday.
Prabhakar Rao on Wednesday appeared before the SIT officials for the second consecutive time and produced his mobile phones and other electronic gadgets to the officials. He was further told to appear before the SIT on June 14 for questioning.
Based on the statements of four police officers including G. Praneeth Rao, the SIT officials established the role of Prabhakar Rao creating profiles of political leaders, celebrities, Tollywood actors, judges and journalists and intercepted their mobile phones during the Assembly elections held in the state in 2023.
The SIT officials focused their questioning on how Prabhakar Rao, along with Praneeth Rao, allegedly abused their official positions by routinely copying intelligence data to personal drives, possibly in collusion with unidentified associates. They are also suspected of erasing the data by removing and destroying hard disks to conceal their actions.
It was also reported that Prabhakar Rao informed the SIT that records of interception orders and messages should be destroyed every six months following the Telegraph Act unless required for functional purposes and this decision has to be taken by the Review Committee only.
The then government, including from the home department, officials have issued proceedings to pre-pone the Review Committee meeting. Based on the instructions, the Review Committee conducted a meeting on December 2, 2023, and based on the same, the destruction of the data took place subsequent to tendering his resignation to the SIB chief post.
However, the SIT officers found fault in destroying the hard disks after transferring data into the personnel devices of Praneeth Rao and others. The SIT officers also would verify the mobile phones of Prabhakar Rao to get clues in the phone tapping case.
