HYDERABAD: The Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) is said to have tapped the phone of senior Congress leader B Mahesh Kumar Goud, accusing him of supplying provisions to Maoists, during the BRS regime.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) conveyed this to Mahesh Goud, now the TPCC chief, when he appeared before it as a witness in the alleged phone-tapping case on Tuesday.
Later, speaking to TNIE, Mahesh Goud said that the SIB recorded his name without any suffixes or prefixes to make it appear as if he were a Maoist supporter. He stated that the SIT officials confirmed to him that his phone was tapped, something he had only suspected until then.
The TPCC chief said SIT officials had asked him when he first suspected his phone was compromised. He explained that several incidents involving leaks of classified information had raised his doubts. Before the 2023 Assembly elections, he served as TPCC working president (organisation in-charge) and regularly communicated with then TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy, now the chief minister.
According to him, police often appeared to know their plans in advance and used to prevent them from even staging a protest. On multiple occasions, he added, his vehicle was stopped under the pretext of conducting checks.
“We had a fair chance of winning 90 seats. But we were confined to 63. They managed to influence our vote bank by tapping the phones of our leadership,” he said.
‘Trampling upon right to privacy’
The TPCC chief said that BRS supremo and former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and BRS working president KT Rama Rao should hang their heads in shame for trampling upon the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy by authorising the tapping of phones of Congress leaders when they were in power.
He also alleged that his party lost the 2018 Assembly elections because of this.
Earlier, speaking to the media outside the SIT office, the TPCC chief said that the SIT is looking into the alleged phone tapping of over 650 Congress leaders.
He said that only the Intelligence Bureau (IB) can tap the phones of terror suspects subject to certain conditions and for a period of three days.
“However, KCR appointed a retired IPS officer as intelligence head to commit heinous crimes such as invading privacy,” he fumed.
Mahesh Goud alleged that BRS leaders ordered the destruction of hard disks after losing power.
He alleged that the then chief secretary and DGP also succumbed to pressure and supported phone tapping. “They were successful in tapping phones in every Assembly constituency where we lost the election,” he alleged.
He said that his party would not rest until all the persons involved in the case are brought to book.