According to Telangana BJP sources, the Union minister has crucial evidence on the illegal surveillance gathered by the central intelligence agencies, which he is likely to share with the SIT officials.
Photo: IANS
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar will appear before the Special Investigation Team of the Telangana Police probing the phone tapping case, as a witness on 8 August. According to Telangana BJP sources, the Union minister has crucial evidence on the illegal surveillance gathered by the central intelligence agencies, which he is likely to share with the SIT officials.
Following the Kaleshwaram Dam report, which indicted the former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the phone tapping case is the second one under which investigations are going on against him. It has been alleged that the BRS government had indulged in large-scale surveillance of the phones of the then-opposition party leaders. The SIT was formed by the Congress government right after it came to power following the Assembly elections in 2023.
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Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar has informed SIT officials conducting investigations in the phone tapping case that he will appear before them on 8 August. Earlier, the SIT had informed Bandi Sanjay to appear on 28 July, but he had requested a postponement since Parliament was in session.
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Apart from the Union minister, some of his staff members are also likely to depose before the SIT about phone tapping. The BJP has been demanding that the phone tapping case be handed over to the CBI, and the party’s legal cell has already filed a petition in the Telangana High Court seeking a probe by central agencies. The phone tapping during the BRS regime has been controversial since there are allegations that, apart from political leaders, even the phones of judges and married couples were tapped.
The SIT has questioned former State Intelligence Bureau chief T Prabhakar Rao and DCP P Radhakishan Rao, who had been running large-scale phone surveillance operations on politicians and businessmen in Telangana under the BRS rule. It has been reported that they named the then chief minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, and the DGP for the illegal surveillance.
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