Hyderabad: Nampally criminal court on Wednesday granted seven-day police custody of former city task force DCP Radha Kishan Rao, accused in the phone tapping case. The special team probing the case will take him into custody from Chanchalguda prison, where he is currently lodged, on Thursday.
The team will be questioning Rao, after his medical examination, at the Banjara Hills ACP office in the presence of his lawyers. The entire questioning will be video recorded and submitted as an exhibit during prosecution.
Meanwhile, was on Wednesday also booked in a separate case of threatening a businessman. A case has been registered against him by Kukatpally police based on a complaint by a businessman Munagapati Sudarshan, who stated that Rao had threatened him to vacate his apartment and reportedly demanded money.
Rao, who is A4 in the phone tapping case, had told the police earlier that the other accused former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao had reportedly acted at the behest of BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
He also pointed out that he and his team, working on the directions of Prabhakar Rao, had seized Rs 70 lakh from Bhavya Cement owner Anand Prasad and `1.50 crore from the kin of BJP leader Raghunandan Rao’s during the Dubbaka by-elections.
During the previous by-election, Rs 3.50 crore belonging to minister Komati Reddy Venkat Reddy was also confiscated.
There are allegations that the accused Bhujanga Rao, Radha Kishan Rao, P Venugopal, Praneeth Rao, Thirputanna and others extorted huge amounts from hawala operators, jewellers, realtors and Tollywood celebrities.
Apart from tapping phones of political leaders, the accused separately operated with Israeli tapping devices and other equipment to extort money from many others. They bought imported bikes, sports cars, luxury cars, villas and farm houses in posh localities in the twin cities.
The investigation officers are presently making efforts to identify on whose directions Prabhakar Rao had acted, to whom they will be issuing notices. In the third phase of investigation, the police will probe hawala, extortion and other money related issues, police sources said.
Officials from the enforcement directorate (ED) will likely look into whether the accused police officers and political leaders had invested the ill-gotten money in any firms or had started their own benami ones.The complainant Sudarshan stated in his confession that Radha Kishan Rao, as an ACP in the SOT in 2016, had confined him for two days after he refused to give his apartment.
“Radha Kishan Rao threatened to kill me and demanded that I give Rs 5 lakh. He collected my sale deed and encroached my apartment. Even today I am staying in a rented house,” Sudarshan said.
