Who is T Prabhakar Rao? Ex-Telangana intel chief named prime accused in phone tapping case

Former Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief, T Prabhakar Rao, has been named the prime accused in Hyderabad Police's phone tapping case from December last year, during which it was alleged that phones of Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) rivals were tapped and efforts were made to erase evidence when Congress' win over BRS in the assembly elections became clear.

Officials told The Indian Express that initially, Rao's name was not mentioned in the FIR, and the police wanted to question him regarding the phone tapping allegations and deletion of evidence, which included over 45 hard drives in the SIB's computers. However, the arrest of Bhujanga Rao and Thirupatanna became troublesome for Prabhakar Rao.

The arrested individuals reportedly told the police that they took orders from Prabhakar and acted accordingly.

Who is T Prabhakar Rao?

• Born on June 25, 1960, Prabhakar Rao started his career as an IPS officer in 1991.

• He served in the Telangana cadre from 2001.

• In 2019, he was promoted to the rank of IG in Telangana Police.

• According to Money Control, it is suspected that he fled to the US. Police have issued a lookout notice against him.

• He retired in 2020 and was appointed as OSD, Intelligence (SIB) in November last year, Indian Express reported.

• On December 4, which is suspected to be the day when evidence was deleted, Rao resigned from his post.

Radha Kishan Rao, another officer who was serving in the city task force, has also been named, and a lookout notice has been issued for him as well. It is suspected that he fled to the UK after the scam started to unravel.

Several other Telangana police officers are being investigated in connection with this case.