Hyderabad: Justice Sarath Kaja of the Telangana High Court appears to be one of the targets of the illegal phone tapping operation conducted during the BRS government tenure, according to the confession statement of former ASP N. Bhujanga Rao.
In the confession statement, Bhujanga Rao also said that the phone of every politician, who criticised then minister and BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao in the TSPSC question paper leak scam and of judges, was tapped on the instruction of then SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao.
Prabhakar Rao monitored and tapped the phones of High Court judges, according to the confession statements of Bhujanga Rao as well as other officers accused in the case, Mekala Tirupatanna, D. Praneeth Rao (SIB DSP) and task force former DCP G. Radha Kishan Rao.
Bhujanga Rao and Tirupatanna on March 30 revealed to the special investigation team inquiring into the phone-tapping operations that after they had received instructions from Prabhakar Rao, they had used devices meant to track terrorist units to tap into the mobile phones of TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy, his brother Kondal Reddy, then Opposition leaders Uttam Kumar Reddy, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and other prominent political leaders.
According to sources, Praneeth Rao collected details about the personal lives of judges, prominent Opposition leaders and BRS leaders and put them under GPS surveillance so that their movements could be tracked.
Whenever the BRS faced protests, the then SIB’s special operations team used to bring under surveillance important leaders and associates who were leading the protests or levelling criticism against the party.
Bhujanga Rao in his confession statement also revealed that the phones of opposition leaders, student leaders, Congress and BJP leaders and journalists were tapped.
“We tapped the phones of the family members of Opposition leaders. Phone tapping was also done during the byelections (to Dubbak, Huzurnagar and Munugode) and the GHMC elections,” Bhujanga Rao said in his statement before SIT officials.
In October last, the Election Commission transferred Radha Kishan Rao and many others ahead of the Assembly elections. “After that we planned to bring the BRS to power for the third time… we started full-fledged civil dispute settlements,” Bhujanga Rao stated.
Many disputes involving companies, prominent persons and businessmen are settled under the instructions of BRS leaders. A large amount of money was moved from two private hospitals and money was taken in task force vehicles as per the orders of BRS leaders before the (Assembly) elections, Bhujanga Rao said.
Realtor Sandhya Sridhar Rao was made to buy `13 crore worth electoral bonds and was threatened with criminal cases if he refused to do so, Bhujanga Rao stated.
Bhujanga Rao also revealed that special arrangements were made for the Kamareddy Assembly election, where then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was a contestant. “We put special surveillance on BJP candidate Venkatrami Reddy, TPCC present and present CM A. Revanth Reddy's brother Kondal Reddy (sic).”
Based on info from phone-tapping and GPS location, the police officials seized `90 lakh from Revanth Reddy's friend Gali Anilkumar in Kollur and `1.95 crore from K. Vinay Reddy, `10.5 crore from Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy's associate, `3 crore from Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy's friend Ch Venu, `50 lakh from G. Vinod of Visaka Industries, `50 lakh from “Uttam mitrulu,” `35 lakh from MLA Yashaswini Reddy's aunt from Jhansi Reddy, according to the confession statements.
Tirupatanna also confessed that he along with Praneeth Rao destroyed all the data after the Congress won the Assembly elections.
All the data in his three computers along with nine loggers were destroyed, which also erased information on Maoists stored from decades in SIB war rooms.
Tirupatanna confessed that he was a key player in the phone tapping case and said that Prabhakar Rao and Bhujanga Rao had ordered lightning raids where money of BRS’ opponents was being transported and seized it. “Over 40 officers were hand-picked for the phone tapping and extortion operations,” the accused told the SIT.
