Hyderabad:The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the illegal phone-tapping operation during the previous BRS regime has summoned BRS working president and former minister K.T. Rama Rao for questioning at 11 am on Friday.
The questioning of Rama Rao is crucial because all the political leaders summoned by the SIT till now, including former minister T. Harish Rao, to a great extent were victims of phone-tapping. For the first time, the SIT could explore the possibility of Rama Rao’s involvement in the decision-making with regarding to the tapping of phones by the erstwhile BRS government.
The then-Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) officials under the BRS government intercepted mobile phones of political leaders, celebrities, Tollywood actors, journalists and judges. Rama Rao was served notices under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which allows the investigating officer to summon witnesses, suspects, or even “potential accused.”
The SIT’s notice to Rama Rao came a day after his brother-in-law and former minister T. Harish Rao was grilled for more than seven hours. “Even Harish Rao was not spared from the tapping and we provided him the details during the questioning,” a senior police official said adding that Rama Rao would be perhaps the first person to appear before SIT, other than the officials who were already made accused, whose phones might have been spared.
Crying foul over the SIT notice, Rama Rao described them as a diversionary tactic meant to shield administrative failures of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. Comparing the investigation with daily soap operas on television, Rama Rao said he would cooperate with the investigating agencies but would not accept political harassment.
He also dragged in the names of senior officials including Director-General of Police B. Shivadhar Reddy, questioning the rationale behind sparing them from the probe despite holding crucial positions during the time when the phones were tapped.
In the notice, the SIT officials referred the case registered by the Punjagutta police and said that, during the course of investigation, it had come to the notice of the invstigation officer that Rama Rao was acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case and his personnel examination was necessary for the purpose of investigation.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 160 of the CrPC, K.T. Rama Rao is directed to appear before the investigation officer on Friday at 11 am at the Jubilee Hills assistant commissioner of police (ACP) officer for examination in connection with the investigation,” the SIT said in the notice.