Hyderabad: A first Information Report has been filed against Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA T Harish Rao in connection with a phone-tapping case. Mr Rao -- the nephew of former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and a minister in his government - has hit out at Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, accusing him of framing him in false cases.
The matter came to light after the Congress government came to power, with the arrest of a former police officer, Praneeth Rao, following a complaint by his senior officer D Ramesh.
Then Gadhagoni Chakradhar Goud, a businessman and founder of Farmer's First Foundation, lodged a complaint alleging illegal surveillance of his phone by Harish Rao and his associates. The MLA from Siddipet, he alleged, had misused state intelligence to monitor his movements and those of his friends and family.
In his complaint, Mr Goud alleged that during the election campaign, when he contacted his followers for meetings and rallies, many of them informed him that they had received threatening calls warning them not to attend his events.
"These individuals also reported that the caller knew about their conversations and contact details, which led me to suspect that my phone was being tapped," he said.
In the FIR, Harish Rao, former Deputy Commissioner of Police P Radha Kishan Rao, and others have been accused of criminal conspiracy, extortion, and criminal breach of trust by public servants under relevant sections of the IPC and IT Act. An investigation has been started.
In a post on 'X', Mr Rao said: "I have been questioning your (Revanth Reddy) unjust acts and exposing your real nature and standing by people. But you are unable to stand it and hence getting many illicit cases foisted against me. Since I exposed your double standards and questioned you in public, you foisted another false case against me in Panjagutta police station. Even if you file a lakh of false cases, I will not stop questioning on behalf of people."
The development comes as an investigation into an earlier alleged phone-tapping, under the former BRS government, is underway and political leaders linked to the case are being questioned.
Radha Kishan Rao is one of the accused in another case of phone tapping that allegedly happened during the previous BRS regime and is currently in prison. Four police officers, who have since been suspened, were arrested since March for allegedly erasing intelligence data from various electronic gadgets.