BRS-era Cops Attempted to Crack WhatsApp Calls

Hyderabad: Police officials of the State intelligence Bureau (SIB) who illegally tapped phones during the tenure of the previous BRS regime had acquired high-end technology and attempted to intercept encrypted communications on platforms such as WhatsApp.

According to a confession made by the accused, extensive spying led to many political leaders, judicial officers, and bureaucrats avoiding phone calls and using WhatsApp, Signal and Snapchat which scramble their communications and make it impossible to be cracked in transit.

However then SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao, prime accused in the phone-tapping case, and his special operations team led by D. Praneeth Kumar started obtaining and analyzing internet protocol data records (IPDRs) to track communications over internet calls.

The SIB, under Prabhakar Rao's direction, systematically gathered information on individuals who were deemed as threats to the BRS This intelligence was relayed to Praneeth Kumar, SIB DSP, who monitored these individuals continuously to develop profiles that could be used to control and neutralise potential threats to the then ruling party.