In an intriguing development in the alleged Telangana phone tapping row under the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, the police said that retired senior police officer P Radhakishan Rao confessed to being involved in the phone tapping. The police said 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 former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and officers of the Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB).

In a confession statement and other documents submitted to the Nampally Criminal Court, the Hyderabad police said that retired Superintendent of Police Radhakishan Rao also admitted to having facilitated the movement of cash by BRS members during elections and curbing movement of cash by opposition parties, when the BRS was in power. 

Several Telangana police officers have been arrested on charges of illegally collecting intelligence information under the previous BRS government by methods including phone tapping, clandestinely monitoring individuals, and erasing data to destroy evidence.

In a confessional statement recorded on April 9, police said that Radhakishan Rao confessed to having worked closely with former CM KCR and former SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao to carry out various illegal snooping activities. “We were working … to help CM KCR in having tight control over his party and also in suppressing opposition parties by cutting their financial resources and support base,” the statement said. It said that SIB officer, then Inspector (and now Deputy Superintendent of Police) Praneeth Kumar, “used to collect such good information by intercepting the cell phones either through legal or illegal ways. He also had a tool that would intercept cell phones including internet data.”

The statement said that those under surveillance included most family members of now CM and then state Congress chief Revanth Reddy, media persons such as NTV founder Narendra Choudary, Managing Director of ABN Andhra Jyothi Vemuri Radhakrishna, several opposition leaders including the staff members of BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind, BJP MP Bandi Sanjay, former BRS minister and now BJP leader Eatala Rajender, many businessmen from different construction and real estate companies, etc. to track their movements and to know their networks.

The list also included BRS’ own leaders who had differences with other senior leaders within the party including former MLA T Rajaiah, former minister Patnam Mahender Reddy, and others. Other names listed include former IPS officer and Telangana Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and now BRS leader RS Praveen Kumar as well as political commentator and Congress leader Teenmaar Mallanna.

Despite many political leaders, members of the judiciary, and bureaucrats opting for encrypted communication channels such as Signal, etc. to evade surveillance, the SIB started obtaining and analysing IPDR (Internet Protocol Data Records) to track their communication over internet calls, the statement said. It also said that as part of his task force duties, Radhakishan Rao had the power to seek CDR (call detail records), IPDR, and location requests from telecom and internet service providers.

Detailing his association with KCR, Radhakishan Rao said that after the formation of Telangana in 2014, he was posted to the Chief Minister’s Security Group and became close to KCR and his family members since then. He said that he was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force, Hyderabad, as KCR wanted a trusted officer to enable party-related activities and bring the city under the control of BRS. Ex-SIB chief Prabhakar Rao played a key role in this posting, Radhakishan purportedly said.

His work at the time included “settlement of civil disputes, arm twisting certain persons creating trouble to BRS and CM KCR and his family members, and also suppressing any type of dissent or protest or agitation against the TRS party and its government as ‘peddayana’ (KCR) used to get irritated for even minor dissent or criticism also,” the confession read.

The confession also said that when Prabhakar Rao was the SIB chief, he started a special team under then Inspector Praneeth Kumar to monitor opposition leaders and “other associations who create political trouble” for the BRS. “I used to get a lot of information from Praneeth Kumar based on monitoring the phones of political opponents and their associates, supporters, and financiers,” the statement said.

It also said that Radhakishan Rao admitted to accessing confidential political information such as seizure of money from opposition parties and also working to enable transportation of money by the BRS, on orders from Prabhakar Rao. “This organised work started in 2018 before [the previous] Assembly elections and later continued to 2019 Lok Sabha elections and various bye-elections in the state such as Dubbaka, Huzurabad, and Munugode … and by the 2023 Assembly elections, our systematic works had become very efficient because of the experience gained over years,” the statement said.

Prabhakar Rao also asked police officers to “build profiles of political opponents, their supporters, their family members, and also of persons from within BRS whose activities are suspicious or those who are criticising CM KCR or trying to be close to other party leaders,” the statement said. These profiles would be built by monitoring phones and using tools available to SIB, and would be conveyed to KCR by Prabhakar Rao, the statement said.

Radhakishan Rao also purportedly admitted to tapping the phones of the accused in the BRS MLA’s poaching case from 2022, which happened just before the Munugode bye-election.

Read: BRS MLAs poaching case accused alleges his phone was illegally tapped under KCR govt

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

He also purportedly confessed to having seized money belonging to associates of the BJP candidate in the Munugode bye-election, Komatireddy Raja Gopal Reddy, and that the names and phone numbers of such persons were sent through the CM’s office. During the Munugode bye-poll, Radhakishan Rao said he was also asked to curb criticism of KCR and BRS on social media by identifying individuals and their phone numbers, picking them up, and ‘teaching them a lesson’.

He said that Teenmaar Mallanna’s arrest in August 2021 in an extortion case was also done on orders from Prabhakar Rao. Teenmaar Mallanna has been a strong critic of KCR’s governance. Mallanna was also placed under surveillance by the SIB under KCR’s orders, the confession said. “We also used to discuss about teaching him a lesson severely so that he becomes silent completely,” it said.

The confession also named certain businessmen as close associates or funders of the BRS, including the owners of Yashoda Hospitals who it alleged funded the BRS during elections with cash.

Radhakishan was removed from his post by the Election Commission of India after the BRS’ loss in the 2023 Assembly elections, over allegations of working in favour of the BRS.