Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday, March 24, adjourned the bail plea of former Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) chief Prabhakar Rao’s anticipatory bail plea by two weeks.
The SIB chief is one of the accused in the phone-tapping case. Representing Rao, his legal team argued that the former chief is cooperating in the investigation. The counsel claimed that there is a lack of evidence against Rao in the phone-tapping case.
The counsel representing the Telangana government sought time to file a detailed counter-petition. Acknowledging the request the Telangana High Court adjourned the hearing by two weeks. In 2024, Rao was named the prime accused in the phone-tapping case.
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According to a DC report, Rao has been staying in the United States of America for a year and the Special Investigations Team (SIT) has declared him an absconder.
In his anticipatory bail plea filed before the High Court through his counsel, Rao claimed that the phone-tapping case was lodged with a political motive and the allegations made in the complaint, FIR and chargesheet, which were widely reported in the media, were false and made up to implicate him for political interests.
Rao alleged that the SIT had weaved a story of alleged phone tapping without any legal evidence and destruction of recordings to please the political set-up in the government.
Denying that he had absconded, Rao said he went to the USA on March 11, 2024, whereas the SIT listed him as an accused in the case on April 29, 50 days after his departure.
Rao said that when he learnt about the case, he had filed a memo, dated May 2, through his counsel, informing the court about the circumstances of his travel to the USA, which was for medical purposes, prior to registration of the case and much before his implication in this case.
