HYDERABAD: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has approached the CBI with a request to issue Red Corner notices against T Prabhakar Rao, former State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief, and A Sravan Kumar, owner of a private news channel, in connection with the phone-tapping case.
Police sources confirmed that the CID submitted relevant documents to the CBI. The central agency will now study the documents provided by the CID and forward the same to Interpol. A Red Corner notice is a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.
However, sources said that the CID’s move might not serve any purpose, as the two accused have furnished their overseas addresses and expressed their readiness to cooperate with investigators. Prabhakar Rao and Sravan are currently in the US.
Sources pointed out that a Red Corner notice is issued only against fugitives. Moreover, the duo are not categorised as absconders, they said. Prabhakar Rao even filed an affidavit in a local court through his advocate, sources pointed out.
Shortly, the summer vacation of the court will be over and there is a possibility of the two accused taking legal action against the CID’s move.
Meanwhile, it is suspected that the accused took the assistance of a cyber security firm to help them in the process of deletion of the information on the hard disks. According to sources, the other accused in the case, Praneeth Rao and Thirupatanna, who operated with 12 officers and 17 systems and eight officers and seven systems respectively, destroyed a total of 62 hard disks.
Move might not serve any purpose: sources
Red Corner notices are issued against fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence. A Red Corner notice is a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Sources said that the CID’s move might not serve any purpose, as the two accused have furnished their overseas addresses and expressed their readiness to cooperate with investigators.