Snooping Case: Red Corner Notice Issued Against Prabhakar Rao

Hyderabad: State police have issued a red corner notice against former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the phone tapping case.

This is the first red corner notice against any officer or politician from among the names revealed by the four arrested former police officers during their interrogation.

As of now the present investigation team, headed by S.M. Vijay Kumar, DCP (west zone), will continue to probe the case, police sources confirmed.

Prabhakar Rao was in Tirupati district when Vijay Kumar’s special team arrested D. Praneeth Rao from his house in Srinagar Colony, Rajanna Sircilla district.

Reliable sources disclosed that Prabhakar Rao had in the first week of December instructed Radha Kishan and Praneeth Rao to destroy technical evidence from SIB units in the city, Warangal and Rajanna Sircilla districts. By December 4, over 70 per cent of technical evidence was destroyed from the SIB-SOT war rooms.

After getting confirmation that the evidence that could land him in trouble had been destroyed, Prabhakar Rao escaped to the US without informing even his family members, reliable sources pointed out. His mobile phone was switched off.

Meanwhile, the investigation teams retrieved data from the dumped and damaged devices from SIB-SOT war rooms. These will be used against the accused during prosecution, reliable police sources said.

The teams probing the illegal phone tapping are waiting for Prabhakar Rao to record his statements. All former police officers who have been arrested put the blame on Prabhakar Rao while stating that they had acted on his instructions.

“As of now we have just oral statements. A suspect or accused can mention any political leader’s name in order to save his skin but technically and logically it is very important to prove it during the prosecution,” a police officer said.

During investigation, the police found that Prabhakar Rao was granted six months visit visa to the US. “Two months have lapsed. Where will he go after another four months? He has to return and face charges”, said a police officer.

Meanwhile, the police have informed US immigration officials in Texas about Prabhakar Rao’s involvement in criminal cases. His movements in the US are under 24x7 surveillance, sources said.