56 special op team members used for phone tapping during BRS regime, reveals statement of accused

Hyderabad: The confession statement of suspected DSP Dugyala Pranith Rao, who was responsible for the phone-tapping incidents during the BRS regime, said at least 1,200 people were under constant surveillance.

Around 56 members of the Special Operations Team (SOT) of Telangana, police have been utilised for phone tapping.

The confession statement of Pranith Rao, which surfaced on Wednesday morning, also revealed that the then SIB head, senior IPS Prabhakar Rao, had instructed him to destroy hard discs and other equipment as the last year's assembly results began to come in.

Another senior officer, N Bhujanga Rao, who was also accused in the case, confessed that they had tapped the phones of a few judges and advocates linked to some BRS government cases.

Pranith Rao also said he had thrown the destroyed hard disks and other equipment into Musi river at Nagole and Musarambagh. Formatted phones and pen drives have been thrown into a Nala in Secunderabad and burnt the CDR, IPDR data.

“The SOT in SIB under DSP Praneeth Kumar directly supervised by ex-DIG Prabhakar Rao also used to monitor and put surveillance over student union leaders and caste organisation leaders who are critical of BRS government; journalists and high court judges (viz. Justice Sarath Kaja) and advocates who are having important cases of government and party leaders; etc., to find out more details about their personal lives and their activities so that they can be influenced or countered at appropriate times. Also, during all important occasions or times when the BRS party was in tough times, SOT used to swing into action to monitor the situation by putting surveillance over all important leaders and associates leading the protest or criticism against the BRS party” said Bhujanga Rao in his confession statement.

Meanwhile, BRS said the Congress government was trying to tarnish the image of his party and its leaders, whereas the case lacks legal sense and is all utter nonsense.

Former minister and BRS senior leader K Niranjan Reddy termed these 'leaks' to the media of the confession statements of the accused as nonsense. BJP Rajya Sabha member and national OBC morcha chief, Dr K Laxman, questioned the Congress government's lack of action against BRS leaders in the phone tapping case.