Hyderabad:: A BJP leader in Telangana has asked that former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao be named as the accused number one in the phone tapping case, over which his Bharat Rashtra Samithi is facing tough questions. BJP leader Raghunandan Rao, former MLA and now candidate for the Medak Lok Sabha seat, has written to the state police on this matter, mentioning that he was also a target.
The Chief Justice of India, he told NDTV in an exclusive interview, should take note, since even phones of judges were snooped on.
Three senior police officers have been arrested and former chief of the state intelligence bureau is wanted over allegations that the state police were involved in tapping phones of then Opposition leaders, celebrities and businessmen. The list included Congress's Revanth Reddy, who is now the Chief Minister.
A lookout notice has been issued against T Prabhakar Rao, former chief of the state intelligence bureau, who is reportedly in the US now. The other wanted person is Shravan Rao, who runs a Telugu TV channel called I News, and had allegedly helped set up phone-tapping equipment from Israel. He is believed to be out of the country.
In a letter to the state police chief, Raghunandan Rao said he had filed a complaint after winning the Dubbak bypoll in December 2020 alleging his phone was being tapped.
Arrested DSP Praneeth Rao had confessed to have tapped phones during the Dubbak, Huzurabad and Munugode bypolls, he claimed. The confession was given in a sealed cover to the judicial magistrate but the BJP leader claimed he knew about the contents.
Chief Minister Reddy and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu were among the first victims in 2015. The same year, Mr Reddy was arrested for allegedly trying to offer a bribe of Rs 50 lakh in a note-for-vote scam, Raghunandan Rao said.
Sources have said that more than one lakh phones were allegedly tapped on the orders of the former Chief Minister.
His successor, Mr Reddy, has vowed action. "Elements of the conspiracy are still under investigation, but there is a lot to come out..." he had told NDTV.