Phone-tapping case: SC asks Telangana govt if it wants to keep SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao jailed till he breaks down

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Telangana government whether it wanted to keep former state Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao in jail till he broke down. The SC was hearing an anticipatory bail application filed by Rao, who is an accused in a phone-tapping case.

As the hearing commenced, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan expressed inclination to make "absolute" its order of interim bail to the former IPS officer.

However, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Telangana, opposed it and said larger questions of law are involved. Luthra requested the court to consider questions of law raised by the state, including whether a person declared an absconder and residing overseas could have even applied for anticipatory bail.

"We have feeling that you want him to be in jail till he breaks down. Now, we will not let you use our order (granting interim protection) beyond what it was meant for," the bench said.

The top court said anticipatory bail doesn't mean that it is free for him and the state police can still call him for interrogation.

The bench said it had ordered the surrender and custody of Rao on December 11 as an "interim Article 142" measure to help in the investigation.

The court said it will hear the matter on March 10 and extended the interim protection to Rao till then.

On December 19 last year, the apex court had extended till December 25 the police custody of Rao. The court had said Rao would be released after interrogation on December 26 and no coercive action be taken against him till it heard the case on the next date of hearing.

On December 12, Rao had surrendered before the investigating officer at the Jubilee Hills police station here at 11 AM, as directed by the apex court.

The Telangana government earlier alleged that Rao was still withholding his iCloud accounts despite the court order.

The apex court on May 29 granted interim protection from coercive action to Rao and directed him to give an undertaking that he would return to India within three days after the receipt of his passport.

Rao has moved the top court challenging an order of the Telangana High Court, which dismissed his plea seeking anticipatory bail.

On May 22, a Hyderabad court issued a proclamation order against Rao in the phone-tapping case.

A suspended DSP of SIB was among four police officials who were arrested by Hyderabad Police since March 2024, for allegedly erasing intelligence information from various electronic gadgets as well as for alleged phone-tapping during the previous BRS regime. They were subsequently granted bail.

The accused are part of the alleged conspiracy in which they "misused" the resources of SIB for political purposes by putting citizens from different walks of life under surveillance, the police had said.

Those named as accused in the case and others had allegedly developed profiles of several persons without authorisation and were accused of monitoring them secretly and illegally and using them in a partisan manner to favour a political party at the behest of some persons.

They are also accused of a conspiracy to destroy records and evidence of their crimes, according to the police.