HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao, the main accused in the high-profile phone-tapping case, to share his iCloud password with the state police in the presence of forensic experts. A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan also extended interim protection from coercive action, directing Prabhakar to cooperate fully with the probe and appear before the investigating officer.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Telangana, alleged that the former SIB chief had obstructed the probe by destroying electronic evidence and formatting devices while under court protection. “He was intercepting phones of important persons, not just politicians. After filing his anticipatory bail plea, he formatted the device; it’s as good as new,” Mehta said, adding that forensic experts believe Prabhakar may have backups on 15 hard discs.
Senior advocate DS Naidu denied the allegations, claiming that the probe was politically motivated and asserting that Prabhakar had cooperated fully. He added that the system formatting was a “departmental protocol” due to sensitive data, and that the only outstanding issue was resetting his iCloud password in the presence of experts.
The hearing saw a heated exchange when Naidu alleged that MPs and MLAs were allowed to participate in Rao’s interrogation. Justice Nagarathna rebuked the claim, saying, “It cannot be a tamasha! MPs and MLAs cannot act as spectators or take part in the investigation.”
The apex court had earlier granted Prabhakar interim protection on May 29 after he challenged the Telangana High Court’s rejection of his anticipatory bail plea. A Hyderabad court had issued a proclamation order against him on May 22, warning that he could be declared a ‘proclaimed offender’ if he failed to appear by June 20.
(With PTI inputs)
