Are you the ‘big leader’ who ordered phone-tapping?

Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao was questioned for about five hours by the Telangana Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the phone- tapping case, at his residence at Nandiangar in the city on Sunday.

While the BRS president reached the Nandinagar residence well before the time specified by the SIT, the investigating officers reached at 3 pm to take up the questioning. There was four-tier police security near the residence of KCR as the police personnel did not allow any party workers to enter the lane. The police officials who questioned KCR included Special Branch Joint CP Vijay Kumar, Maheshwaram DCP Narayana Reddy, Additional DCP KS Rao, ACP Venkatagiri, Greyhounds SP Ravinder Reddy, and ACP Sridhar.

Before the investigation started, the BRS chief got emotional as he recalled that from this very house, he had planned strategies for a separate state and today he was being questioned in the same room. Talking to the party leaders, he said, “I have never thought I would be sitting in front of the officials facing inquiry in the same room where the agitation for separate state was planned. I have spent many sleepless nights in this same room. Discussed in this same room with many people and in the same room I have planned strategies for achieving Telangana statehood. It is unfortunate that I had to attend for inquiry in this same room.”

The SIT officers grilled KCR for about five hours questioning based on the allegations/ statements by some officials and political leaders that one ‘big leader’ had asked them to tap the phones. “The SIT officers questioned whether KCR was the ‘big leader’? What is his role in the phone-tapping issue? Did he direct the intelligence officials to tap the phones? On whose direction, the officials had tapped the phones?” a source said.

The officials also asked KCR from which year the phones were being tapped. Was this for general security issues or political needs? They also reportedly asked him whether the phones of the political leaders, especially of the opposition parties, were tapped during the elections. The officials also asked why the tenure of the former intelligence bureau chief Prabhakar Rao was extended? They also asked how the BRS knew that their party MLAs were looking to quit the party.

Did that information come through phone tapping? They also asked whether the phone tapping equipment was purchased through party funds and if yes why it was purchased through party funds. They asked why there were the phone numbers of people who issued electoral bonds in the tapping list.

After about five hours, the SIT officials left the residence. The party activists who were at Telangana Bhavan rushed to the residence of KCR raising slogans in favour of the BRS chief, who waved towards them from the balcony.