View of Telangana High Court building in Hyderabad
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
Telangana’s former chief of Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) T. Prabhakar Rao, prime accused in the ‘telephone tapping’ case, secured approval of the authorities for eavesdropping by “fabricating false justification, misrepresentation and fraud”, the State government informed Telangana High Court on Tuesday.
In a counter-affidavit filed in telephone tapping PIL petition in the High Court, Special Chief Secretary of Home department Ravi Gupta stated that the accused in the telephone tapping case had taken advantage of the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and related rules to “achieve illegal objectives to help the then ruling party” (Bharat Rashtra Samithi). The accused officers also wanted to implement their personal agenda, he stated.
The accused in the case obtained Call Data Records (CDRs) of various people from all walks of life “including the constitutional functionaries without following the procedure and authorisation from the authorities concerned,” Mr. Gupta said in the affidavit. In 2019, the then BRS government designated Chief of Intelligence Naveen Chand, Inspector General of Police (SIB) T. Prbhakar Rao and IGP (Counter Intelligence) Rajesh Kumar as the authorities for issuing emergency interception orders as per Rule 419A of the Telegraph Act and rule 3 of Information Technology Rules-2009.
Again in 2020, (based on the recommendation of the then IGP) the government issued GO Ms. no. 18 (modifying the previous GOs) designating Mr. Rao (who by then retired and got service extended as Chief of Operations-Intelligence) as authorised officer of interception of messages. Furthermore, the government “addressed all telecom and internet service providers, including the Department of Telecommunications) and told them that Mr. Rao was authorised to issue orders under the Telegraph Rules for interception of telephones and monitoring of internet service providers in ‘public interest,” the affidavit said.
In emergency cases where obtaining prior permission for interception of messages was not feasible due to remote locations or operational reasons, the competent authority (not below the rank of IGP) must be informed of such operation within three working days. This interception must be confirmed by the competent authority within seven working days.
‘T. Prabhakar Rao (who has retired and was on extension of service) being the authorised person carried out the interception activities without the prior approval of officers authorised to issue interception orders under the guise of operational reasons and Left Wing Extremist work,’ according to the affidavit.
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in its counter affidavit stated that there was no mention of any role played by the Central government as was mentioned in the documents filed by the State government. There was no communication from the State government seeking any directions from the Centre on the matter either, it stated.
