Telangana: Ex-intel chief surrenders to police in phone tapping case

Former Telangana intelligence chief T. Prabhakar Rao, wanted in connection with an alleged phone-tapping and data-erasure conspiracy under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, surrendered before Hyderabad Police on Friday in compliance with a Supreme Court order, officials confirmed.

Rao, who formerly headed the powerful Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) — an agency tasked with monitoring security threats and politically sensitive intelligence — presented himself before the investigating officer at Jubilee Hills police station at 11.00 am, meeting the deadline set by the apex court. His appearance marks a significant escalation in a probe that has cast a long shadow over the BRS’s 2023 election defeat and the conduct of senior intelligence officials during the party’s tenure.

Rao resigned shortly after the BRS lost the Assembly polls, and investigators have long maintained that his custodial interrogation is essential to establishing how and why the SIB’s surveillance machinery was allegedly diverted for political ends.

The case centres on accusations that, in the final years of the BRS government, a group of senior officers within the SIB illegally monitored citizens, created unauthorised intelligence 'profiles', and placed individuals from a wide range of professions under clandestine surveillance. Police allege these efforts were undertaken to benefit the ruling party and targeted political rivals, activists and private individuals without due process.

Since March 2024, Hyderabad Police have arrested four SIB officials, including a suspended deputy superintendent of police. Investigators say the group not only engaged in unauthorised phone-tapping but also attempted to erase digital records and intelligence files, actions seen as a deliberate effort to destroy evidence. All four were later released on bail, though the conspiracy angle remains under scrutiny.

Police maintain that the accused officers “misused” state intelligence resources and conspired to ensure that sensitive data was wiped from official devices. This alleged destruction of evidence, investigators say, is among the factors that prompted calls for Rao’s custodial questioning.

Rao’s surrender follows a Supreme Court directive issued on Thursday by a bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan, who clarified that the order was necessary to enable further investigation into the offences attributed to him.

The bench stated: "We direct the petitioner to surrender before the Jubilee Hills police station and the investigating officer by 11.00 am tomorrow... the custodial interrogation to be done in accordance with law. List on Friday. Liberty is reserved to the petitioner herein to have food from his home as well as medication regularly."

The top court had earlier, on 29 May, granted Rao interim protection from coercive action, directing him to undertake that he would return to India within three days of receiving his passport. He had approached the Supreme Court after the Telangana High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea.

Pressure intensified on Rao earlier this year when a Hyderabad court issued a proclamation order on 22 May, warning that he could be declared a “proclaimed offender” should he fail to appear before authorities by 20 June. A proclaimed offender notice allows the court to order the attachment of the accused’s properties, a measure typically reserved for individuals who evade the legal process.

Rao’s compliance with the Supreme Court directive averts that immediate risk, but his surrender now places him squarely at the centre of one of Telangana’s most politically sensitive investigations in recent years.

With PTI inputs