The phone-tapping case centres on alleged surveillance by the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti regime.
Published Jan 22, 2026 | 5:28 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 22, 2026 | 5:31 PM
BRS working president KT Rama Rao. Credit: x.com/BRSparty
Synopsis: The SIT probing the alleged phone-tapping case in Telangana has summoned former minister and BRS Working President KT Rama Rao for questioning at 11 am on Friday. The notice comes days after senior BRS leader Harish Rao was questioned by the SIT for several hours in connection with the case, which is alleged to have taken place between 2018 and 2023 and to have been overseen by the Special Intelligence Branch.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Telangana police, probing the alleged phone-tapping case said to have taken place under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) government, on Thursday, 22 January, issued a notice to former minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao, asking him to appear before it at 11 am on Friday.
The SIT was recently constituted by the ruling Congress to expedite the probe and is headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar. It includes senior police officers.
The notice came days after the SIT questioned BRS Legislature Party deputy leader T Harish Rao for more than seven hours on Tuesday in the same case.
The Siddipet MLA appeared before the SIT at the Jubilee Hills Assistant Commissioner of Police office around 11 am, after receiving the notice a day earlier.
Sources said advocates accompanying Rao were not allowed to enter the ACP office.
Lawyers objected to the prolonged questioning, saying Rao had been summoned only as a witness and that keeping him at the police station for several hours was unjustified. They accused the police of deliberately delaying the process under the guise of interrogation.
The phone-tapping case centres on alleged surveillance by the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti regime.
It is alleged to have targeted high-profile individuals, including political leaders, journalists, bureaucrats and celebrities, under the pretext of monitoring Maoist activists.
To carry out the tapping, the SIB allegedly misused Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act. The provision allows the Union or State governments to intercept communications in situations of public emergency or public safety.
The SIB is accused of supervising the tapping of more than 4,000 phone numbers belonging to a wide range of high-profile individuals.
The operation reportedly began as early as 2018, intensified during the 2021 Huzurabad by-election, and continued until the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court dismissed a Special Leave Petition filed by the State challenging earlier orders of the Telangana High Court quashing the FIR registered at the Panjagutta police station against Harish Rao.
The High Court held that there was no material to establish his involvement in the alleged phone tapping.
The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed in 2024 by Siddipet-based real estate businessman Chakradhar Goud.
He alleged that his phone was tapped during the tenure of the previous BRS government at the insistence of Harish Rao and former Deputy Commissioner of Police (Task Force) P Radha Kishan Rao.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
