Senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA and former minister T Harish Rao, who was grilled by the Special Investigation Team of the Hyderabad police in connection with his alleged role in the telephone tapping scam, is trying to put up a brave front and brush aside the questioning as a silly affair.
But according to sources, the SIT authorities pushed him into a tight spot during the seven-hour interrogation.
For many of the questions, Harish Rao had no answer or tried to evade answers; yet, the SIT sleuths managed to get what they want, sources said.
Yet, Harish Rao and BRS leaders are giving an impression that the telephone tapping case is insignificant.
Yet, they sought to create a law-and-order issue by mobilising large crowds at the interrogation venue, raising slogans, conducting social media campaigns, and questioning the duration of the inquiry.
The party has also accused the Congress government of political vendetta and police excesses whenever crowd control measures were enforced.
The BRS has also alleged that the questioning violates Supreme Court directions. However, senior police officials have clarified that this claim is factually incorrect.
“The Supreme Court had quashed only a private complaint filed by Siddipet businessman Chakradhar Goud, while the SIT is currently probing a separate and independent case registered by the state government in March 2024, which is the main phone tapping case,” sources said.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar clarified that Harish Rao was summoned purely as a witness, as investigators believe he may have knowledge relevant to the case.
The questioning, which lasted nearly seven hours, reportedly focused on his association with accused former police officials.
Police sources describe the phone tapping case as extremely serious, involving illegal surveillance, destruction of hard disks, establishment of dedicated tapping infrastructure, and alleged erasure of sensitive information related even to Maoists and terror suspects.
Investigators claim that journalists, political leaders, intellectuals, and visiting politicians were also subjected to surveillance.
According to reliable sources, during questioning, SIT officials allegedly confronted Harish Rao with evidence suggesting that not only his phone but also the phones of his family members and close aides had been tapped.
After initially disputing the claim, Harish Rao reportedly fell silent when shown technical evidence.
Police maintain that the SIT alone has the authority to decide whom to question based on evidence and that accused individuals cannot dictate the scope of the investigation.
Officials insist that political propaganda cannot indefinitely obscure facts as the probe continues.