Case booked against KCR's nephew Harish Rao on phone tapping complaint

PTI Hyderabad: A case has been registered against senior BRS leader and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao and others after a real estate businessman alleged that his phone was tapped by them, police said on Tuesday. The complainant, G Chakradhar Goud, who contested the 2023 assembly elections on a BSP ticket from Siddipet and lost, accused Harish Rao, the nephew of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, of using state intelligence to monitor his movements and those of his associates and family members. In the complaint, Goud stated that during the election campaign, when he contacted his followers for meetings and rallies, many of them informed him that they had received threatening calls warning them not to attend his events.

"These individuals also reported that the caller knew about their conversations and contact details, which led me to suspect that my phone was being tapped," he said. Based on the complaint, police said a case was registered at the Panjagutta police station on December 1, charging Harish Rao, former Deputy Commissioner of Police P Radha Kishan Rao, and others with criminal conspiracy, extortion, and criminal breach of trust by public servants under relevant sections of the IPC and IT Act.

The investigation is underway. The complainant further suspected that the former minister influenced police officials to monitor his activities. He alleged that despite submitting petitions to the police department multiple times regarding the surveillance of him and his associates, no action had been taken earlier.