Union Minister Bandi Sanjay to depose as witness in phone tapping case during BRS regime

Union Minister of State for Home, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, would give his statement to police as a witness in the case related to alleged illegal phone tapping during the previous BRS regime in the state, BJP sources said.

The investigators sought Sanjay Kumar's time to record his statement in the case, and he would convey his suitable time, they said.

Sanjay Kumar told reporters in Karimnagar on Saturday that he would cooperate with officials in the investigation.

Referring to allegations that the phones of judges were also tapped, he said it is the responsibility of the state government to hand over the probe to the CBI.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had sought CBI investigation in the phone-tapping case when he was in opposition, he said.

Sanjay Kumar recalled that he was the first to make allegations of phone-tapping during the BRS regime.

He claimed that he was illegally arrested during the BRS government at the behest of officials involved in phone-tapping. He was the Telangana BJP president then.

Earlier, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president B Mahesh Kumar Goud on June 17 testified before police as a witness in the phone-tapping case.

Goud had condemned the illegal phone tapping that allegedly took place during the BRS regime and said all those involved should be held accountable.

Authorities are currently questioning the former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief of Telangana, T Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused, in the alleged phone-tapping case.

Prabhakar Rao has been accused of forming a "Special Operations Team" under a suspended DSP within the SIB for carrying out certain specific tasks related to political surveillance to benefit the then ruling political party and its leaders.

The suspended DSP of the SIB was among the four police officials arrested by the Hyderabad police since March 2024 for allegedly erasing intelligence information from various electronic gadgets, as well as for phone-tapping during the BRS regime. They were subsequently granted bail.

Those named as accused in the case, along with others, had allegedly developed profiles of several people in an unauthorised manner and were accused of monitoring them clandestinely and illegally in the SIB and using them in a partisan manner to favour a political party at the behest of some people.