HYDERABAD: Former Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao has asked the police to question former Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and former DGP Mahender Reddy on why they recommended him for the post after his retirement.
“The decision was taken by senior officials in the government,” Prabhakar Rao told the SIT official when they questioned him as to how he landed the job in contravention of cadre rules.
It may be mentioned here that after Prabhakar Rao had retired from service on June 30, 2020, he was appointed as SIB chief the same day by the then government for a period of three years.
The accused in the phone-tapping case allegedly snooped on at least 30 persons associated with Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy’s construction and real estate business, including his manager and car driver. Besides Ponguleti, the phones of sitting Palakurthy MLA Yashaswini Reddy and her associates were tapped during the 2023 elections.
When the police asked Prabhakar Rao why the phones of these politicians and their associates were tapped, he replied: “We tapped their phones as we suspected that they had links to Maoists and were trying to influence voters,” Prabhakar Rao told the SIT officials.
Phone of cop too tapped?
The phones of prominent leaders from the Congress, BJP, TDP and those who switched loyalties to other parties from BRS before the 2023 elections were tapped, a source added.
Interestingly, the accused had also snooped on one of the SHOs of Hyderabad city police before the elections. He is now in the Task Force. When the SIT asked him regarding tapping of a police officer’s phone, Prabhakar Rao replied that he suspected that the cop had Maoist links.
Police sources said the former SIB chief never submitted a report to senior officials in the Hyderabad police regarding the Maoist links of the cop. The SIT officials asked him to appear before them again on June 19 as he refused to answer many of their questions.
