Hyderabad: In the ongoing investigation into the sensational Telangana phone-tapping case, Hyderabad police have intensified its probe towards the collection of evidence in the case by seeking the relevant call details from the telecom service providers, sources said.
Sources said that the police is already engaged in the process of retrieving the data in the hard disks collected from Moosi River to find out whose phones were tapped in the name of Special Operation Targets (SOT) of the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB).
Statements have been recorded from a total of 34 people including those who have worked in SIB and task forces so far to collect basic information about who targeted and tapped the phones. The call details from the service providers is expected to provide a major breakthrough in the case.
Police have so far arrested four cops including former Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Task Force, Radha Kishan Rao in the case related to alleged surveillance of opposition leaders by the previous BRS government, and the illegal transport of cash at the behest of the then ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) during the November 2023 Assembly elections.
Sources said that the investigating agency suspects that the team of Praneeth, one of the arrested accused police officers who tamed an employee of a leading telecommunication service company, engaged in haphazard tapping with his cooperation.
The process of questioning many field-level officers and staff who worked with former SIB chief Prabhakar Rao is going on. The investigation team has already interrogated many policemen who have worked in the SIB in Warangal, and Nalgonda districts, sources added. Two constables from Nalgonda district have been reportedly detained and were questioned on Friday in connection with the case.
The cops are suspected to have violated the Model Code of Conduct during the Munugodu, Nagarjunasagar, and Hujurnagar by-elections, while working in the task force department.
During the previous by-elections, along with phone tapping, it was reported that a large amount of money was supplied in government vehicles several times.
The investigation of former DCP Radhakishan Rao of the task force is ongoing. Rao was taken ill while he was being interrogated at Banjara Hills police station on Friday.
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