The state government and the special investigation team (SIT) probing the phone-tapping case of the BRS government on Tuesday vehemently opposed the anticipatory bail petition filed before the Telangana High Court by prime accused T. Prabhakar Rao, former chief of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB).
Hyderabad:The state government and the special investigation team (SIT) probing the phone-tapping case of the BRS government on Tuesday vehemently opposed the anticipatory bail petition filed before the Telangana High Court by prime accused T. Prabhakar Rao, former chief of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB).
Supreme Court senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the prosecution before the High Court bench, argued that Prabhakar Rao did not deserve to get anticipatory bail as he was not cooperating with the investigation, having fled abroad for more than a year. His custodial interrogation was needed to get hold of the illegal operations.
“‘The person who is in the position of a saviour… must not be devour’. Contrary to it, Prabhakar Rao had made a mockery of the government agency during his term as chief of SIB. He is now offering that he would return to India and cooperate with the investigation only if the court granted anticipatory bail,” Luthra told Justice J. Sreenivas Rao.
Prabhakar Rao had no option left but to return to India after the revocation of his passport, senior counsel said. He submitted that the state government was leaving no stone unturned to get Prabhakar Rao extradited to India. The petitioner has not made any attempt to return to India by challenging the revocation of his passport. “Rather he is sitting in the USA,” Luthra said.
If any relief was given to Prabhakar Rao, it would affect the investigation process, senior counsel said. He argued that the protection of ‘not to arrest” extended to Sravan Kumar, another accused, by the Supreme Court was not applicable to Prabhakar Rao, because it was only an interim protection which could be vacated at any time.
Justice Sreenivas Rao adjourned the hearing to April 30 for rejoinder submissions by Prabhakar Rao’s counsel.
Explaining the case details and the allegations against Prabhakar Rao, senior counsel argued that the former SIB was the mastermind in the phone-tapping operation and had constituted a special operation team (SOT) on his own for the purpose, with the help of the previous government, to get a grip on ruling party politicians and also to take retaliatory steps against political opponents. Luthra said Prabhakar Rao had used government machinery in the SIB to tap the phones of bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen, journalists and members of the judiciary, illegally under the guise of tracking extremists.
Senior counsel argued that the custody of Prabhakar Rao was crucial for the SIT to unearth various important facets in the case as Prabhakar Rao had executed nefarious and illegal activities like covert interception and destruction of government data by breaking more than 30 hard discs, cell phones and CCTV cameras etc. The SIT also wanted to learn what devices and the mechanisms had been had used to intercept the phones and as well as details of the destroyed government data, for which custodial interrogation of Prabhakar Rao was needed.
