In the latest development in the phone tapping case, the Panjagutta police arrested two Additional Superintendents of Police, identified as Bhujanga Rao and Tirupatanna.
Officials close to the investigation said they were accomplices of suspended DSP of the SIB Praneeth Kumar aka Praneeth Rao and were arrested on similar charges.
These include conspiracy to develop profiles of private persons by misusing their official positions, conspiracy to destroy evidence of their illegal activities and disappearance of evidence. They put private persons under surveillance and misused their powers with politically biased intentions, said the officials.
This comes after a weeklong questioning of Mr. Praneeth Kumar, who is facing multiple charges, including criminal breach of trust. The West Zone police of Hyderabad began the questioning on March 17. He was questioned about the contents of the hard drives he destroyed and the involvement of other officials in the case. He will be produced before a court. It is yet to be decided whether the police will file for an appeal to take him into custody again for further questioning.
On March 13, Kumar was arrested by Panjagutta police from his residence in Srinagar Colony of Rajanna-Sircilla district following a complaint his superior D. Ramesh, additional SP with the Special Intelligence Branch, stating that there had been “a concerning pattern of his behaviour during his time as an Inspector and later as DSP with the SIB from 2018 to 2023.”
As per the complaint, Mr. Praneeth was involved in dismantling and destruction data in 42 hard drives and replacing them with new ones. Moreover, he also dismantled and destroyed equipment containing data by turning off the cameras on the night of December 4, 2023, the day Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lost the Telangana Assembly Elections-2023.
He was booked under sections 409, 427, 201 and 120 (B) of the IPC and cases were also registered under the Prevention of Destruction of Public Records Act (PDPP Act), 1984 and the Information Technology Act (ITA).
