Snoop Case: Denying his Involvement, KTR Demands Probe to Cover Role of Top IPS Officers
3 April 2024 9:05 PM IST
BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, accompanied by Sanathnagar MLA T. Srinivas Yadav and Quthbullapur MLA LP Vivekanand Goud at a press meet in Hyderabad on Wednesday. (Photo: DC)
Hyderabad: The opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) hit back at the Congress government on the issue of illegal tapping of phones in Telangana during the BRS rule saying efforts were being made through deliberate leaks to the media to paint as if former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was the only person responsible for the alleged phone tapping and hacking.
Answering a question on allegations of his involvement in the case, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao said at a press conference “I have no connection with any illegal activities. In fact, I received an alert a year or so ago that my phone was under surveillance. And there are efforts to assassinate my character with a minister alleging that I threatened some heroines. I have no need to indulge in any such actions.”
While distancing himself from the phone tapping controversy, Rao called into question the possible culpability of top police officials now serving in the state, in the case.
Referring to senior police officials, he said that phone tapping, if it had happened, could not have taken place without the knowledge of the present DGP Ravi Gupta, who was secretary (home) during the BRS government. He also said Additional DGP (intelligence) Shivadhar Reddy, who was earlier IG (intelligence), and P. Mahender Reddy, who is now the TSPSC chairman, and the DGP earlier, along with V.C. Sajjanar, now MD of TSRTC, who was in the special intelligence branch (SIB), should have been aware of phone tapping.
The BRS leader demanded a thorough probe into the phone tapping case by expanding its purview to include the possible role of all such senior police officials in the case. He also said that the Congress government, instead of resorting to targeted and excerpted leaks, should dig deep and investigate phone tapping from 2004 onwards. He recalled how the incumbent minister Ponnam Prabhakar had alleged that his phone, along with other Congress leaders who were supporting separate Telangana state, were being snooped at the behest of the then chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. “Let all of these be investigated. We want a thorough probe,” Rama Rao said.
Answering a question on allegations of his involvement in the case, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao said at a press conference “I have no connection with any illegal activities. In fact, I received an alert a year or so ago that my phone was under surveillance. And there are efforts to assassinate my character with a minister alleging that I threatened some heroines. I have no need to indulge in any such actions.”
While distancing himself from the phone tapping controversy, Rao called into question the possible culpability of top police officials now serving in the state, in the case.
Referring to senior police officials, he said that phone tapping, if it had happened, could not have taken place without the knowledge of the present DGP Ravi Gupta, who was secretary (home) during the BRS government. He also said Additional DGP (intelligence) Shivadhar Reddy, who was earlier IG (intelligence), and P. Mahender Reddy, who is now the TSPSC chairman, and the DGP earlier, along with V.C. Sajjanar, now MD of TSRTC, who was in the special intelligence branch (SIB), should have been aware of phone tapping.
The BRS leader demanded a thorough probe into the phone tapping case by expanding its purview to include the possible role of all such senior police officials in the case. He also said that the Congress government, instead of resorting to targeted and excerpted leaks, should dig deep and investigate phone tapping from 2004 onwards. He recalled how the incumbent minister Ponnam Prabhakar had alleged that his phone, along with other Congress leaders who were supporting separate Telangana state, were being snooped at the behest of the then chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. “Let all of these be investigated. We want a thorough probe,” Rama Rao said.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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