Senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA and former Telangana minister T Harish Rao on Tuesday appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Hyderabad police in connection with the high-profile phone tapping case.
Harish Rao reached the Jubilee Hills Police Station a short while ago, amid tight security arrangements.
Police personnel did not permit Harish Rao’s lawyers to accompany him inside the police station. A heavy police presence was deployed in and around the station to prevent any law-and-order issues.
The SIT had issued notices to Harish Rao on Monday, directing him to appear for questioning. As the legislator was on a district tour at the time, SIT officials served the notice at his residence in Kokapet.
According to sources, the SIT is grilling Harish Rao based on the information given by the other accused – Shravan Rao and T Prabhakar Rao.
Apparently, Harish Rao handled the entire telephone tapping issue at the instance of then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The phone tapping case, which has been under investigation for nearly two years, has seen several twists and turns.
In March 2024, a case was registered at Panjagutta Police Station, alleging that during the BRS regime, phones belonging to political leaders, businessmen, and even judges were illegally tapped and that evidence related to the surveillance was destroyed.
The investigation suffered a setback after the prime accused, former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) OSD Prabhakar Rao, fled abroad.
Although other accused were arrested, the probe remained stalled for a long period due to his unavailability. The investigation regained momentum after Prabhakar Rao returned to Hyderabad in June last year.
Reacting to the developments, Harish Rao asserted that he was not intimidated by the hollow threats from the Revanth Reddy government. He alleged that the SIT notices were issued purely as a diversionary tactic.
Harish Rao claimed that the ruling dispensation was resorting to “diversion politics” because he was exposing corruption involving the chief minister and his associates.
Maintaining that he had committed no wrongdoing, Harish Rao said he had nothing to fear. He also pointed out that the Supreme Court had dismissed a Special Leave Petition related to the phone tapping case.
Despite setbacks in both the High Court and the Supreme Court, he alleged that authorities were continuing what he termed as “dramas” in the name of the SIT.
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