The special investigation team of the Hyderabad police is questioning Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president K T Rama Rao in connection with the alleged telephone tapping scam that took place during the previous K Chandrasekhar Rao government.
A couple of days ago, the SIT questioned KTR’s cousin and former minister T Harish Rao for nearly seven hours.
But both the leaders are behaving as if they are above the law and the SIT authorities have done a big mistake in interrogating them for so many hours.
Analysts say it is not first time that political leaders have been summoned to the police stations for questioning.
Even reputed leaders like former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao obliged the summons and appeared before the courts, despite facing politically motivated cases.
But KTR and Harish Rao are displaying an arrogant attitude in facing the SIT authorities in the telephone tapping case.
Such is the audacity of KTR to say that the investigators themselves should be interrogated, not the other way round.
They are also indulging in mobilisation of party cadres, protests, and aggressive rhetoric. Harish Rao’s warning to officials—particularly those nearing retirement—was cited as especially contentious.
He reportedly cautioned that officers acting “unfairly or illegally” would face lifelong consequences, including prolonged legal battles even after retirement, regardless of where they might seek refuge.
Such remarks amount to intimidation of law enforcement agencies discharging their statutory duties.
An analyst said neither the police nor the courts have branded KTR or Harish Rao as accused; they have only been summoned as part of an inquiry.
He sought to know there is a need for public posturing when cooperation with the investigation could suffice.
It may be mentioned that former MLC and Telangana Jagruthi president Kavitha Kalvakuntla herself stated publicly that she too was a victim of phone tapping and that her husband’s phone was also intercepted by the BRS government headed by her father.
“The SIT has to probe into these allegations as well. How can KTR or Harish Rao deny this?” the analyst asked.