Snooping accused A6: HC reserves order on anticipatory bail
i-News MD Shravan Kumar challenges NBW; prosecution seeks ‘proclaimed offender’ status
Justice K. Sujana of the Telangana High Court on Friday reserved orders in the anticipatory bail application filed by Aruvela Shravan Kumar Rao, managing director of i-News, who is also accused no. 6 in the phone-tapping case. A non-bailable warrant has been issued by the XIV additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Hyderabad, against the petitioner.
Shravan Kumar claimed that the warrant was the result of a motivated and biased move of the investigating agency in adding him as A6 in the case.
Of the six accused, three have already got bail, including Mekala Tirupathanna, P. Radhakishan Rao and N. Bhujanga Rao, while the main accused T. Prabhakar Rao and Dugyala Praneeth Rao are yet to get bail.
During the hearing on Friday, public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao vehemently opposed Shravan Kumar’s petition on the ground that the investigating agencies had filed a petition before a lower court with a plea to declare the petitioner as a “proclaimed offender”.
Elucidating the details unearthed during the investigation, he informed the court that as per the FSL report, phones of 19 High Court judges and one Supreme Court judge had also been tapped, which is a serious offence. The details had been provided to the High Court in a sealed cover.
Senior counsel Venkatesh, appearing for Sravan Kumar, said that though the petitioner was abroad, he had placed the entire information pertaining to him in the public domain and had sent an e-mail to the Hyderabad police commissioner and was ready to cooperate with the investigation, subject to his being granted bail. The judge reserved the petition for orders.
