Hyderabad: Under the instructions of former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao and arrested officers Bhujanga Rao and Tirupathanna, suspended officer D Praneeth Rao allegedly extorted money from 36 businessmen with a special focus on renowned jewellers, hawala operators. Extorted. , Realtors and some other major construction company owners.
While investigating the phone tapping case, the police are encouraging the victims to come forward and lodge their complaints. The investigation team is also verifying the data that has been tapped by other suspects, including data related to the family of a former minister and his close relatives, who were also threatened by the accused officials. It is revealed that all these activities were done under the instructions of Prabhakar.
Meanwhile, the police have named Prabhakar as accused number 1 and former officer on special duty (OSD) of the task force, Radha Kishan Rao, as accused number 3 in the phone tapping case. Praneeth, who was arrested earlier, is accused number 2 as per the FIR. It is learned that Prabhakar and Radha Kishan are absconding and are believed to be in the US. While the police have searched their residences, they have also issued lookout notices against the two to alert the airports.
During investigation, the police learned that Praneeth started tapping the phones because he was asked to do so by the accused officials. The two senior police officers arrested on Saturday – Tirupathanna, additional DCP, CSW (City Armed Reserve), Hyderabad City Police, and N Bhujanga Rao, additional SP, Bhoolapalli – also said they followed Prabhakar’s instructions.
According to sources, Prabhakar and Radha Kishan gave phone numbers of high-profile politicians and businessmen to Praneeth and asked him to tap their phones. He said that thereafter, the former DSP used to monitor private conversations, collect information and provide him regular updates.
Prabhakar was allegedly the mastermind behind the case and is suspected of ordering complete surveillance on then opposition leader A Revanth Reddy as well as his family members, followers and associates. After this, Praneeth sent all the information gathered through eavesdropping back to the former intelligence chief.
In his statement to the police, Praneeth has revealed that the team had tapped the phones of hundreds of political leaders during the elections. They will also collect information related to fundraising by political leaders. Additionally, he reportedly told police that he destroyed 17 hard disks in the computer, broke them into pieces and threw them into the Musi River. The team also reportedly burnt all the documents in the two lodger rooms.
List of numbers shared by prominent BRS leader: Policemen arrested
One of the recently arrested policemen, Bhujanga Rao, who was serving as Additional SP, Intelligence, has told the police that he had tapped phone numbers given by a prominent BRS leader.
Meanwhile, Tirupathanna reportedly revealed that he used to share the names given by Radha Kishan to Praneeth, who then collected the necessary information. The arrested policemen were produced in court and sent to 14 days judicial custody.
