TPCC senior vice-president G. Niranjan has accused D. Praneet Rao, along with his associates, of accumulating substantial wealth through extortion via phone tapping.
He asserted that they threatened businessmen into submission through this illegal practice, and added that the TPCC would write a letter to the Director General of Police (DGP) and the Home Secretary to ensure a thorough probe.
Addressing a press conference at the Gandhi Bhavan here on Tuesday, Mr. Niranjan stated that there were suspicions over the involvement of the then DGP and Home Minister in the phone tapping scandal. Condemning the alleged misuse of police resources under the previous BRS regime, he lamented that the phone-tapping case had tarnished the image of the Telangana police, who had once earned a lot of respect. The Congress leader alleged that three senior officials had ruined the revenue and law enforcement systems. Allegations were raised against the BRS rule for orchestrating phone tapping activities, including the surveillance of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s communications during their tenure.
Moreover, Mr. Niranjan accused the BRS government of leveraging the intelligence apparatus, typically deployed to monitor extremist groups like Naxals and criminal activities, against Congress leaders. It may be recalled that D. Praneeth Rao, suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), was arrested in the case on March 13, while two more police officials, Thirupathanna, Additional DCP, CSW, Hyderabad police, who formerly worked as Additional SP, SIB, and N. Bhujanga Rao, ASP, Bhupalapally, formerly Additional SP, Intelligence Department, were also arrested late on March 23.
