A retired senior police officer in Telangana accused of involvement in illegal tapping of phones under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government has made some startling allegations concerning former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. In the aftermath of the Telangana MLAs poaching case in which the BRS government alleged that representatives of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to bribe their MLAs to switch parties, KCR wanted the Telangana police to arrest BL Santhosh, the national general secretary (organisation) of BJP, according to a confession statement signed by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force, Hyderabad, P Radhakishan Rao. 

KCR wanted the police to build a strong case against BL Santhosh, in order to negotiate with the BJP to absolve his daughter K Kavitha in the Delhi liquor policy case, in which she has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, it further said. 

Radhakishan’s confession statement submitted by the police to the Nampally Criminal Court says that he admitted to tapping the phones of leaders of opposition parties – including the Congress and BJP, BRS’ own leaders, senior journalists as well as construction and real estate businesspersons, at the behest of KCR and officers of the Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB).

According to the Hyderabad police, Radhakishan Rao in his confession said that when a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to probe the MLAs poaching case, “KCR wanted the arrest of BL Santhosh…to make the case strong so that BJP would come for compromise and it can be used to get rid of the ED case on his daughter MLC Kavitha.” 

Radhakishan purportedly also said that due to the “inefficiency” of some Cyberabad police officers in Kerala, an important person associated with the “Mata Amritanandamayi” institution escaped being nabbed by the police. Later, Superintendent of Police Rema Rajeshwari and an Inspector with the SIB Gattu Mallu, and other officers were sent to Kerala in a chartered flight but could not nab him either. 

The confession also said that KCR was very angry that the police did not work on the case as per his expectation and nab the absconding persons. Radhakishan abstained from revealing further details saying he “owes a lot” to KCR for reappointing him twice, and posting him in the Hyderabad City Task Force after his retirement, according to the police. 

The SIT probing the MLAs poaching case had issued a lookout circular for Dr Kottilil Narayan Jaggu, alias Jaggu Swamy, a doctor at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences at Ernakulam in Kerala, and also summoned BL Santhosh and others associated with the BJP. The Telangana High Court eventually transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

Read: Telangana MLAs poaching case: How cops and TRS laid trap for alleged BJP agents

The MLAs poaching case came to light in October 2022, after the BRS government and Telangana police laid an elaborate trap for three alleged BJP agents who are accused of offering crores of rupees to several BRS MLAs in exchange for switching to the BJP, ahead of the Munugode bye-election.