Hyderabad: Police have reportedly taken into custody suspended DSP Dugyala Praneeth Rao, accused of tapping the phones of Opposition leaders during the BRS government tenure and destroying the evidence.
Praneeth Kumar, alias Praneeth Rao, who worked with the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) at that time, was reportedly not cooperating during questioning, sources said.
Police have seized his mobile phone and sent it to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to retrieve data. They also collected his previous SIM cards and have secured his call data records, sources said.
Police are said to have detected phone numbers and Whatsapp chats of senior police officers from his mobile. Police reportedly recovered disproportionate assets from Praneeth Rao's place. He was reportedly involved in transportation of money during the recent Assembly elections, police sources disclosed.
City police along with FSL have formed special teams and are collecting information from the three war rooms, one each at Greenlands in the city, Rajanna Sircilla and Warangal districts that Praneeth Rao operated. These teams over two days have inspected the SIB offices and interacted with incumbent officials.
Praneeth Rao, had reportedly stored over 10 lakh two-way conversions and had destroyed them on December 4 last year after the BRS government lost the Assembly elections.
Director-General of Police Ravi Gupta had suspended Praneeth Rao recently. SIB additional SP P. Ramesh had lodged a complaint against Praneeth Rao last week, accusing him of destroying evidence.
Sources claimed that in a six-year period, Praneeth Rao, a 2007 batch sub-inspector from Warangal district, along with 30 police officers belonging to a prominent caste, were selected to secretly tap the phones of prominent politicians and personalities.
Investigations into Praneeth Rao's case also revealed that he had allegedly tapped over 50 mobile phones of top realtors and minted crores by providing information to the real estate mafia, sources claimed.
Reliable sources disclosed that Praneeth Rao dealt with the then top leaders individually, and did not share the information with other top leaders.
Sources said Praneeth Rao and his team had even recorded the mobile phone of BRS MP Joginpally Santosh Kumar's wife Rohini, on the directions of the then top political leaders.
The targets, apart from then TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy, now the Chief Minister, and BJP leader Bandi Sanjay, were senior politicians including from the BRS, police officers, state and district-level politicians and even mandal praja parishad presidents. The phones of political journalists from prominent newspapers were also tapped, sources disclosed.
Addressing the media in Karimnagar in October 2021, Revanth Reddy had said, "On the direction of the CM (Chandrashekar Rao), about 30 police officers led by Praneeth Kumar put the DGP under surveillance and many politicians and police officials are facing issues in the department."
Praneeth Rao misused his powers using government technology for political and personal benefits by violating the rules, said Arun Kumar, senior advocate and former assistant public prosecutor, who last week lodged a complaint against then-Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for allegedly using the SIB for political benefits.
"The police should question him on whose direction he was carrying out the unauthorised tapping, who was he providing the recorded data to and on whose direction he destroyed the data, G. Niranjan, TPCC senior vice-president, TPCC, told Deccan Chronicle. He has moved the High Court on the matter.
POINTERS
SIB special operations team headed by D. Praneeth Rao comprised 30 personnel including a station house officer, a sub-inspector, a head constable and constables.
Team operated from Greenlands in the city, as well as its offices in Rajanna Sircilla district and Warangal districts.
Praneeth Rao got an electrician to destroy the power supply at SIB war room in Greenlands, Begumpet.
His associates were involved in destroying evidence stored at Rajanna Sircilla and Warangal districts after the BRS lost the polls
