Former Telangana Chief Minister and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR) plea to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the phone tapping case was rejected. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief had requested the probe agency to interrogate him at his Erravalli farmhouse.
The agency rejected the plea and stated that he would be questioned on Sunday, February 1, at his residence in Hyderabad’s Nandi Nagar. The SIT’s decision was conveyed through a fresh notice issued in response to KCR’s letter seeking deferment and relaxation of conditions. The notice was served late on Friday, January 30 night at the Nandi Hills residence.
KCR had earlier conveyed to the SIT that he will not be available for examination on Friday, January 30, and requested that it fix any other date. Hours after SIT issued a notice for questioning on January 30, KCR wrote to the investigating officer P Venkatagiri that he was preoccupied in connection with the municipal elections.
The BRS chief wrote that at present nomination for the elections to the municipalities and municipal corporations are underway, and January 30 is the last date for filing nominations for the elections to the 116 municipalities and 7 municipal corporations. “In view of the same, I am preoccupied with issuing authorisation to a number of persons as the elections are being held on party basis,” wrote KCR.
The Telangana phone-tapping case that surfaced in March 2024 involves allegations that the previous BRS government illegally monitored and surveilled the phones of political opponents, journalists, and judges via a Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) unit.
The key accused in the case include BRS chief KCR, other top BRS leaders like Harish Rao and former SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao.