Thirupatanna has been accused of being part of surveillance teams that allegedly eavesdropped on opposition politicians’ telephone calls. He used to report to former SIB chief T Prabhakar Rao, who is also under the scanner. The two additional SPs were called to Banjara Hills police station, where Praneeth was being questioned for the past one week. It is learnt that Praneeth and the two additional SPs were questioned jointly.
“During questioning, the two police officers confessed to their involvement in the conspiracy to monitor private persons illegally by developing their profiles by abusing their official positions,” Hyderabad police claimed in an official release late Saturday night.
They have also been accused “of involvement in disappearance of evidence by destroying public property to conceal their involvement in the offence by working in collusion with the arrested former Special Intelligence Bureau officer, Praneeth”.
On Friday night, police went to the residence of Prabhakar Rao, reportedly inaccessible to police as he had gone abroad following Bharat Rashtra Samithi’ defeat in the 2023 assembly elections. Simultaneously, other teams went to the residences of Bhujanga Rao and a senior executive of a Telugu media channel, suspected to be part of an alleged illegal police surveillance team. They found that the executive had gone abroad.
Bhujanga Rao was asked to appear before the investigation officer at the police station. He has been accused of passing information from a key person in the state cabinet and a few others to Special Intelligence Bureau sleuths about people who should be kept under surveillance. He is currently posted as additional SP in Jayashankar Bhupalapally .
DCP (West Zone) SM Vijay Kumar has been camping at the police station to supervise the investigation. Both arrested officers were questioned about the people who were under surveillance, the means used, and the identities of their instructors.
Source Agencies
