Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of former Telangana Intelligence chief T. Prabhakar Rao in the phone-tapping case. The court, therefore, denied him bail and ordered him to surrender to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) at Jubilee Hills police station by 11 am on Friday.
The bench of Justices B.V. Nagaratna and R. Mahadevan heard the case. Telangana government counsel argued that Rao was avoiding the investigation. The counsel requested the court to permit custodial interrogation after the SC denied bail.
SC permits custody, bars physical harm
After reviewing the case, the court allowed the SIT to take Rao into custody. It directed that he must not be harmed during interrogation. The court also noted that Rao had not restored his iCloud credentials as earlier instructed. It said he failed to cooperate fully with investigators, and thus his bail was denied by the SC.
The SIT is investigating illegal phone surveillance during the previous Telangana government. It has already arrested former officers Radhakishan and Tirupati Rao. During interrogation, Radhakishan reportedly named former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. The SC denies bail often in such sensitive cases, allowing the SIT to undertake a thorough investigation. The SIT also questioned P. Rajasekhar Reddy, who served as Officer on Special Duty to the former CM.