Arrested Telangana cop says he destroyed Intel on boss’s orders: sources

Hyderabad:

The case involving arrested former senior police officer Praneeth Rao has become murkier after the cop told interrogators that he destroyed 50 files containing hundreds of thousands of dollars on orders from his former boss, sources said. Hard drive for intelligence files. The hard drives were destroyed on December 4 last year, a day after the state assembly election results were announced.

Sources said the police officer appointed retired IPS officer T Prabhakar Rao, who served as Telangana state intelligence chief.

Rao, a former deputy superintendent of police of the SIB, was arrested late Tuesday night on a complaint by one of his senior police officers, deputy superintendent of police of the SIB, D Ramesh. Mr. Ramesh said he filed the complaint after discovering that many paper and electronic documents were missing.

Sources told New Delhi TV on Wednesday that Rao also allegedly illegally tapped the phones of nearly 50 key people, including opposition members, in the state, which was then ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BRS). The phones of family members of some people close to BRS were also allegedly tapped.

Sources said the SIB was supposed to keep a close eye on left-wing extremism, but a team led by Rao was reportedly gathering political intelligence and details of the dealings of opposition leaders.

The former senior official is accused of not only deleting 1 million call records the day after the election, but also turning off CCTV cameras and replacing his damaged hard drive with a new one.

According to the first information report based on Mr Ramesh’s complaint, Rao owned two rooms at the SIB and operated with 17 systems. He also has a dedicated dedicated leased line with internet connectivity. Through this set-up, he “developed profiles of unknown persons and secretly, unauthorized and illegally spied on them,” the FIR said.

On Wednesday, Rao was sent to 14-day judicial custody.