HYDERABAD: More than a year after the sensational phone-tapping case was registered at the Panjagutta police station, a Telugu TV channel MD and accused No 6, A Shravan Rao appeared before the investigation officers for questioning on Saturday. He was reportedly questioned for around six hours in Jubilee Hills police station.
The case was registered on March 10, 2024.
Speaking to TNIE, sources said that A1 in the case, Prabhakar Rao, left the country on March 11 2024, a day after the case was registered. Shravan Rao alias Shravan Kumar too fled the country on March 14, 2024, a day after A2 Praneeth Rao was arrested.
Shravan Rao returned to the country and appeared before the police on Saturday after the Supreme Court granted him an interim protection from arrest on March 24 this year. On behalf of him, advocate Dama Sheshadri Naidu had informed the court that Shravan Kumar would return within 48 hours. On March 26, the Hyderabad police issued notices to him, asking him to appear before them within 72 hours.
Meanwhile, a source revealed that the police had seized 42 items at Shravan Kumar’s residence in March last year, and based on evidence collected at that time and confessional statements of the other accused, police grilled him on Saturday.
Regular meets with A1
According to confession of one of the accused, Praneeth Rao, on Prabhakar Rao’s instructions, used to meet Shravan Rao for the purpose of political surveillance.
The police questioned whether he collected the inputs in respect of political personalities of various parties as assigned by Prabhakar Rao.
The police also reportedly questioned him as to how he came in contact with Prabhakar Rao and what kind of information he shared with the latter, how he got direct access to Praneeth and SIB teams on “political works”, and what was his role in tapping the phones of officials and other individuals. They also grilled him on how he received information regarding the case and who helped him when he was outside the country.
During questioning, he reportedly told the police that he had no knowledge of the phone tapping. He was asked to appear before the police again on April 2.