Top Cop: Telcos Sent Call Details After BRS Exit

Hyderabad: An illegal interceptor team, which was set up by former Special Intelligence Bureau chief Prabhakar Rao, on September 9, 2023 sought Call Detail Records (CDR) and IP Detail Records (IPDR) of two numbers — 9848057235 and 8501958899 — from the nodal officer of Reliance Jio Infocomm, said Hyderabad police commissioner K. Sreenivasa Reddy in his counter-affidavit to the Telangana High Court explaining the details of the phone-tapping case.

The senior police officer said that the illegal team obtained call details for the period between September 10, 2022 and September 9, 2023 and IP records from August 8, 2023 to September 7, 2023.

The police commissioner submitted a 40-page counter-affidavit to the High Court explaining how they got information about the phone of the High Court judge getting tapped.

On further queries, however, the police chief said Jio’s nodal officer submitted the customer application forms of these numbers, revealing the identity of their users as Sarath Kaja (Justice Sarath Kaja) and Madhavi Goginen, who is the wife of Justice Sarath.

Even though the state was on cusp of the change after the Assembly elections, which ended the nearly 10-year long BRS rule in Telangana on December 4, the nodal officers of the telecom service providers duly sent the reconciliation of phone numbers for the second fortnight of November 2023 addressed to the inspector-general of police, State Intelligence Bureau.

However, IGP, SIB, received the copies of nodal officers after December 4, 2023, when the Congress government was already formed. According to the documents sent by the nodal officers in December, phone numbers of the following persons were tapped in November: Gali Anil Kumar, Ramasahayam Surendar Reddy, Kunduru Raghuveer Reddy, Srinivas Reddy Mereddy, Swapnika Mereddy, Etala Rajendar, Udaya (cameraman of Eatela Rajender), Kasani Gyaneshwar, Kolle Sarita, Anjanna (gunman of Etala Rajendar), Fasi Khan, K Mahendar, Narendar Reddy Anumandla, Mahesh Kumar Goud Bomma, Manala Mohan Reddy, Enugu Ravindar Reddy, Gujjala Premendar Reddy, and several others.

The Hyderabad police commissioner submitted that the investigation is being done seriously and no effort is being spared to conduct a thorough enquiry and collect the entire evidence. The recording of statements are being done in a transparent manner and all efforts are being made to have the absconding accused arrested.

Further, he informed the court that a chargesheet has been filed before the XIV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Hyderabad on June 10, 2024. He requested the High Court to close the suo motu writ petition on the phone-tapping case, which was taken up by the High Court based on a news report in Deccan Chronicle on the tapping of High Court judge Justice Kaja Sarath’s mobile phone.

If the court wanted to issue any orders in this case, however, the police chief said they would oblige it.

The police commissioner also mentioned that the accused officers also obtained CDRs of IPDRs of phone numbers belonging to Anumula Revanth Reddy, Anumula Kondal Reddy, Anumula Tirupathi Reddy, Vinay Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Etela Rajendar, Etala Nithin, Shivadhar Reddy, A.R. Srinivas, Raghavendar Reddy, Ronald Ross, Dharmapuri Aravind, M. Ramesh Reddy, Mega Srinivas Reddy, Mynampally Rohith, Divya IAS, Sasank Tatineni, Teenmaar Mallanna, Maheshwar Reddy of AMR Infra, Narendra Chowdary, K. Venkat Ramana Reddy, Sunil Reddy, Raj News, Veeramalla Satyam and several others.