Hyderabad: The police on Saturday reportedly took into custody former intelligence DSPs M. Tirupatanna and N. Bhujanga Rao in the D. Praneeth Rao mass phone-tapping and destruction of evidence case.Police teams since Friday have searched 13 houses including those of Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) former chief Prabhakar Rao, who has gone to the US, Bhuganja Rao and Tirupatanna, former additional DCP of the city task force P. Radha Kishan Rao, retired DSP Sambasiva Rao and Shravan Rao, iNews TV channel MD. Radha Kishan Rao was not in the city, sources said.Even though Prabhakar Rao and Radha Kishan Rao were not available, police had gathered concrete evidence against them, a police officer said.Shravan Rao had allegedly sponsored the installation of Israeli-made phone-tapping equipment and servers, sources said. Shravan Rao left India the day Praneeth Rao was arrested, sources said.Sources, meanwhile, said that special teams during the last day of Praneeth Rao’s custody on Saturday had collected strong evidence against four additional DSP rank officials, nine retired DSP rank officials and iNews’ Shravan Rao.Police said that the police officials and Shravan Rao had tapped thousands of phones based on the instructions of Prabhakar Rao, former Special Intelligence Bureau chief, who is a relative of Praneeth Rao and got him posted in the SIB as inspector in 2018.Police alleged that the officers were without authorisation tapping the mobile phones of major leaders of political parties including the BRS as well as those of their family members.With the Assembly elections approaching last year, they reportedly began tapping the phones of real estate mafia and informing the same to the political leaders, sources alleged.Since March 17, when he was taken into police custody, police teams based on Praneeth Rao’s confession have collected technical evidence had he hidden in the forests of Rajanna Sircilla and Vikarabad forests and in Warangal district. On Saturday, Praneeth Rao told the police that he had dumped some hard disks in the Musi river.Sources said the cybercrime team had retrieved most of the data from the seized hard disks, pen drivers and mobile phones of the suspects.Praneeth Rao who failed to secure bail from the High Court, was questioned before his counsel, police said. On the last day of his police custody, he was escorted by a special team from the Chanchalguda jail at 10 am. After completing questioning, the police produced him for medical examination and sent him to judicial remand in the evening.Based on their findings during his questioning, police are likely to suspend three DSP rank officials. “We will take action against the accused officers. Based on their statement, we will identify other officers involved in the operation,” a senior police official said.
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