Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Friday concluded hearing in the bail petition filed by former chief of task force, A Radha Kishan Rao, who is currently in jail in the phone tapping case and reserved its judgment. His counsel Uma Maheswara Rao said Radha Kishan was a retired cop and hence cannot be charged with phone tapping offence.
“He was taken in as officer on special duty after retirement and seizing hawala money is no crime,” he argued.
Opposing any relief, public prosecutor Palle Nageswar Rao said Radha Kishan played a key role in distributing the benefits of the crime (phone tapping).
“He used to make frequent visits to BRS MLC and former IAS officer Venkatram Reddy who was acting as a conduit for money distribution in line with BRS strategy. Radha Kishan was also meeting MLC K Kavitha and this shows he was part of BRS rather than any crime prevention force like the task force. Though he retired in 2000 as a security officer in the CM’s team, he was taken in by KCR after he became CM in 2014 as OSD and entrusted with the job of heading a task force ,” the PP said.
He was given an extension in this extended career, he said, adding that Radha Kishan used a hospital to distribute seized money. Nageswar Rao said the Election Commission too directed the state to keep him away from poll duties during assembly elections. Even after this he continued seizing money belonging to rivals of BRS, he said. After hearing the arguments, Justice K Sujana reserved her orders.
