Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) General Secretary Joginapally Santosh Rao has been summoned by the Telangana Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) for questioning in the phone-tapping case.
The nephew of party supremo and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and cousin of Working President KT Rama Ra (KTR) and former member K Kavitha, Santosh Rao, will appear at the Jubilee Hills Assistant Commissioner of Police’s office before 3 pm on Tuesday, January 27.
Last week, KTR and Siddipet MLA Harish Rao were interrogated for several hours by the nine-member SIT headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar. Both leaders called the investigation “nothing but a diversionary tactic” meant to shield administrative failures and protect Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s position.
It should be noted that in September last year, Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha had launched a scathing attack on Santosh Rao, alleging he and Harish Rao “framed” her father in the PC Ghose Commission of Inquiry on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. Her allegations forced KCR to expel her from the party. She subsequently resigned from her MLC seat as well.
In the past, Santosh Rao served as the Managing Director of Telugu Namasthe Telangana.
Details of the phone-tapping case
The phone-tapping case pertains to accusations against the BRS government of surveilling phone conversations of over 600 people, including Opposition leaders, judges, journalists, actors, and others under its ten-year rule and during the 2023 Telangana Assembly Elections. Over 1 lakh phone calls were allegedly e-tapped.
Those who were reportedly monitored included Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, members of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, and even some BRS leaders.
The case came to light soon after the Congress took over and the first FIR was lodged on March 10, 2024.
Former Telangana intelligence chief T Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the case, was earlier questioned by the SIT.
A suspended DSP of Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) was among four police officials who have been arrested by Hyderabad Police since March 2024 for allegedly erasing the intelligence information from various electronic gadgets as well as for alleged phone-tapping during the previous BRS regime. They were subsequently granted bail.
