According to a suspended police officer and a key accused in the sensational phone tapping case, a special team in Telangana's Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) tapped the phones of approximately 1,200 people, including political rivals, their family members and supporters, judges, journalists, and businesspeople.
 
D. Praneeth Rao, who led the SIB's Special Operations Team under the direction of then-SIB chief prabhakar Rao, revealed several surprising admissions during his confession to investigative investigators.

He said that, before of the november 2023 assembly elections, the squad spied on opposition party leaders and donors, intercepting cars transporting money.
 
Praneeth Rao, a Deputy Superintendent of police in the SIB, confessed following similar confessions made by former Deputy Commissioner of police Radha Kishan Rao and Additional Superintendents of police N. Bhujanga Rao and M. Thirupathanna.
 
Praneeth Rao said that they created profiles of the BRS's political adversaries using a technology tool given by a private business.
 
Praneeth Rao, the first person detained in the case, which emerged in march after the congress entered the government, said that 17 laptops and special servers were used for phone tapping. The operation involved up to 56 SOT troops.
 
He admitted to conducting some unauthorized job since he was grateful to prabhakar Rao for elevating him as DSP. He worked from two rooms close to prabhakar Rao's chamber at the SIB headquarters.
 
Before the 2023 assembly elections, the squad tapped rival party candidates' phones and took money from their donors, family, and aides. The information was shared with police officials Radha Kishan Rao, Bhujanga Rao, and Thirupathanna, who were able to intercept the money. The confiscated funds were identified as hawala money so that the election commission would not become suspicious of the seizures.
 
Praneeth Rao also stated that the phones of dissidents in the ruling party had been tapped. He further said that once congress took office, prabhakar Rao asked him to discontinue phone tapping and reportedly ordered him to delete records before resigning. He said that 50 hard drives were destroyed with a cutter in the SIB headquarters and that outdated servers were replaced with new ones.

When he requested permission to turn off CCTV cameras in the logger room before burning the hard discs, the CCTV camera in charge protested, but he informed him that prabhakar Rao had given the instructions and threatened that if the in charge failed to comply, a memo would be issued.
 
Praneeth Rao said that he deleted the evidence between 7.30 p.m. and 8.15 p.m. on december 4, 2023. He tossed the damaged CDs into the musi river near nagole and Moosaram Bagh. The CDR and IDPR equipment were both destroyed by fire. Phones and pen drives that had been reformatted were tossed into the Begumpet nala.
 
 
 

 
For more interesting updates wa click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel

Find out more:

Telangana

SIBY JEYYA

30/05/2024 07:45 AM