Telangana phone tapping case: Supreme Court grants relief to former intelligence chief T. Prabhakar Rao
HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail to T. Prabhakar Rao, former chief of the Telangana Intelligence Bureau, in the phone tapping case on Tuesday. Rao is accused of orchestrating the illegal interception of phone conversations involving politicians and high court judges to benefit the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.
A bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice R. Mahadevan disposed of the plea after the Telangana government confirmed the investigation was nearly complete and Rao had cooperated with the probe.
The Court issued its order after Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, representing the state government, stated that Rao’s interim protection from arrest could be made absolute. Luthra also requested that the legal question regarding the maintainability of the anticipatory bail plea remain open for future consideration.
“We have heard the learned senior counsel. It has been brought to our notice that the petitioner has cooperated and the investigation is nearly complete. A chargesheet will likely be filed in the next few weeks,” the bench noted.
The Court also acknowledged that Rao had complied with all previous orders, including cooperating with the investigating agency. “The senior counsel submitted that the petitioner has complied with the orders of this Court and has also received interim protection during the pendency of the case. The interim protection is made absolute. The petition is disposed of accordingly,” the order stated.
Rao, who served as Intelligence Chief under the previous BRS administration, is the primary accused in the case. He is alleged to have led a clandestine operation involving the tapping of phones belonging to political opponents, bureaucrats, and sitting High Court judges. The surveillance operation reportedly came to light after the Congress party assumed power, prompting the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate.
