Supreme Court extends police custody of ex Telangana intelligence chief in phone tapping case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended the custodial interrogation of former Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao, who is an accused in the phone-tapping case, till December 25.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan rejected a contention by Rao's counsel argued that 12 hours of interrogation is to break his spirit.

The court declined to relax the hours of questioning, saying that he is a seasoned person and he can withstand it.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the state argued that Rao had surrendered, but he was not cooperating in the probe. Mehta submitted a status report in the court and sought an extension of police custody by a week to complete the interrogation.

Mehta said that Rao had been keeping an illegal surveillance of targeted individuals under the guise of tracking Marxists.

Mehta claimed that Rao was trying to destroy the data and remove the evidence.

Senior advocate Ranjeet Kumar, representing Rao, submitted that his client was being harassed in the name of interrogation. Kumar told the bench that he was being questioned from 10 am to 10 pm for the past seven days, and today is the eighth day, and emphasised that they want a self-incriminating statement from him.

"They want a self-incriminating statement and to incriminate certain other people. The pointed questions being asked are to this extent, and Article 21 is being violated, they have all the documents and hard discs, there is no need for further police interrogation," Kumar contended.

Another counsel, also representing Rao, argued that the moment the court indicated he surrendered and pressed that he is a 69-year-old and a cancer survivor, the twelve hours of interrogation were to break his spirit. "Kindly limit the hours (of the interrogation), he is not a murder accused," Rao’s counsel said.

The bench, however, said Rao would be released after interrogation on December 26. The bench made it clear that no coercive action be taken against him till it hears the case on the next date of hearing.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing on January 16 next year.

Rao, on December 12, 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.

In May this year, the court 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 approached the 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.