The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to former Telangana SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao, who is a key accused in the phone-tapping case linked to the previous BRS government.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to T Prabhakar Rao, the former chief of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) in Telangana. Rao is one of the main accused in the high-profile phone-tapping case that allegedly took place during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in Telangana.
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A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma passed the order while hearing Rao’s plea challenging the Telangana High Court’s decision to dismiss his request for anticipatory bail.
As per the court’s directive, Rao must appear before the investigation officer, and his passport should be returned to him. Additionally, the court directed Rao to provide an undertaking that he would return to India within three days of receiving his passport.
Rao is reportedly in the United States, and a Red Corner Notice was earlier issued against him. His passport was also revoked as part of the investigation, according to a police official.
“The top court also directed Rao to give an undertaking that he would return to India within three days after the receipt of his passport.”
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Sidharth Luthra strongly opposed Rao’s plea seeking protection from arrest. The matter has now been listed for the next hearing on August 5.
Rao moved the Supreme Court after the Telangana High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. Earlier, on May 22, a Hyderabad court issued a proclamation order against him in the same case.
“According to the order, Rao may be declared a ‘proclaimed offender’ if he does not appear before the court by June 20.”
If Rao is declared a proclaimed offender, the court can also attach his properties, as per legal procedure.
Background
Since March 2024, the Hyderabad Police have arrested four police officers, including a suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) from SIB. These arrests were made in connection with the alleged destruction of intelligence data from electronic devices and illegal surveillance activities during the previous BRS government. All four were later granted bail.
The police claim that the accused were involved in a conspiracy to misuse SIB resources for political gain by putting citizens under illegal surveillance.
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“The accused are part of the alleged conspiracy in which they ‘misused’ the resources of SIB for political purposes by putting citizens from different walks of life under surveillance,” police had said.
“Those named as accused in the case along with others had allegedly developed profiles of several persons unauthorisedly and were accused of monitoring them clandestinely and illegally in SIB and using them in a partisan manner to favour a political party at the behest of some persons and also conspiracy in destroying the records to cause disappearance of evidence of their crimes,” police earlier said.
