Telangana Phone Tapping Case| Supreme Court directs former Intelligence Officer Prabhakar Rao to cooperate

The Supreme Court today has asked former Telangana intelligence officer Prabhakar Rao to cooperate in the trial pertaining to the case registered over illegal phone tapping conducted during the tenure of the Bharat Rashtra Smithi (BRS) Government.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan was told today that Rao is not cooperating with trial.

Earlier this year, Supreme Court had granted interim protection from coercive action to Rao, former chief of the Special Intelligence Bureau and also directed him to appear before the investigation officer.

Rao had approached the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Telangana High Court, which dismissed his plea seeking anticipatory bail.

In June last year, Telangana High Court had initiated suo motu proceedings into allegations of illegal phone tapping, after a report was published in the Deccan Chronicle, which exposed that the phone tapping not only targeted rival politicians but also included notable High Court judges, such as Justice Sarath Khaja.

The high court, expressing grave concern over the breach of privacy, had said “It's a matter of great concern. As an institution, we are all troubled by it. This is not just a case of simple phone tapping; it infringes upon the Right to Privacy and is a matter of National Security.”

The controversy surfaced in December 2023, following the Congress party's victory in the Rajya Sabha elections and their subsequent rise to power in Telangana. The primary accused, former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) Chief T Prabhakar Rao, is alleged to have orchestrated the privacy breaches. According to confession statements from co-accused Bhujanga Rao and other officers, Rao monitored and tapped the phones of High Court judges.

In March last year, former SIB official Dugyala Praneeth Rao was also arrested on charges of illegal surveillance, criminal conspiracy, and destruction of evidence, among other serious offenses. The arrest followed a complaint filed by D Ramesh, Additional Superintendent of Police, SIB, accusing Praneeth Rao of unlawfully accessing protected computer systems, tampering with digital documents, and misusing public resources. Media reports indicated that Praneeth Rao developed profiles of "unknown persons" for monitoring purposes and tapped the phones of opposition leaders and journalists during the BRS government's tenure.

The operation was allegedly orchestrated under the instructions of then SIB Chief T Prabhakar Rao and monitored by officers including Bhujanga Rao, Mekala Tirupathanna, D Praneeth Rao, and former Task Force DCP G Radha Krishan Rao.