Hyderabad, August 19. A city court on Monday granted interim bail to suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (ASP) N. Bhujanga Rao in a phone tapping case.
Rao was released on bail for 15 days on health grounds after he approached the court seeking bail for heart treatment. The court accepted his application and granted him interim bail.
He is one of four police officers arrested in connection with the wiretapping case that came to light in March.
Bhujanga Rao, the second accused in the case, is alleged to have destroyed certain computer systems and official data.
The case concerned the alleged wiretapping of the phones of politicians, businessmen, celebrities and even some judges during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.
Those whose phones were allegedly tapped by a team of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) included several opposition leaders, including then Congress MP and now Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, dissidents of the then ruling party, businessmen, journalists and even judges.
The controversy over wiretapping and snooping on telephone conversations came to light after the BRS lost power to Congress and a SIB official involved in the operation was caught destroying the data collected.
In March, a case was registered with the Panjagutta police after another SP, SIB D. Ramesh, filed a petition.
Former DSP Praneeth Rao was arrested for allegedly destroying hard drives and other data after the Congress party came to power in December last year.
The police later arrested Bhujanga Rao, Tirupathanna and former deputy commissioner of police P. Radha Kishan Rao.
The Telangana High Court had last month directed the print and electronic media not to mention the names and mobile phone numbers of the judges in their reports on the case.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti had passed the interim order while hearing the ex officio writ petition in the phone tapping case. The bench said that media persons should exercise restraint while reporting any developments related to the case.
In another development in the case last month, former Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) chief T. Prabhakar Rao, the main accused, denied the allegations against him.
The retired Inspector General of Police, who is in the United States, informed the investigator that he had to postpone his return due to numerous health problems.
He assured the police that he would fully cooperate with the investigation and would personally answer all questions once his health improved and he returned to India.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor.
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