The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government’s alleged phone tapping of hundreds of individuals, including politicians, businessmen, journalists, political strategists, and film stars, continues to create ripples in state politics. The issue once again gained prominence with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) summoning K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) for questioning on 22 January. A day earlier, senior party leader and MLA T. Harish Rao was questioned for about eight hours.
For the uninitiated, the Telangana phone-tapping case centres on allegations of illegal surveillance during the previous BRS government. The issue surfaced after businessman and BSP leader Gadhagoni Chakradhar Goud alleged that his phone, along with those of his family members and associates, had been unlawfully intercepted, and he filed a case at the Punjagutta police station. The police registered an FIR in March 2024. Subsequent investigations pointed to the alleged misuse of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) for unauthorised tapping. Several SIB officers were arrested in the case. To expedite the investigation, the Congress government constituted a Special Investigation Team on 18 December 2025, with Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar as its head.
Several politicians and businessmen have testified before the SIT about the suspected tapping of their phones. These leaders include Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar, BJP MP Eatala Rajender, Congress Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, and TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud. Police have also informed senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao that his phone was allegedly tapped. While film personalities were mentioned in political debates, none came forward, fearing a public discussion and subsequent trolling regarding their private lives.
The case also became a sensation due to the suspicious conduct of former SIB officials. Soon after the Assembly elections, SIB officer Praneeth Rao allegedly entered the SIB office and destroyed hard disks to eradicate evidence of the wing’s internal operations. Former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao quietly left for the United States soon after the controversy surfaced and refused to return to India for several months. The Telangana government made sustained legal efforts to bring him back.
K. Kavitha, former BRS MLC and sister of KTR, later declared that she too was a victim of phone tapping. She left the BRS and recently resigned from her position after publicly attacking her brother KTR and cousins Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar for some time. She accused her cousins of tapping her phone and those of her family members and members of her brother KTR’s team during the BRS regime. She implied that even members of her family may have been surveilled. However, she insisted that her father and former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao would not have ordered such actions.
Though the Congress government is attempting to establish the phone-tapping allegations, it has not claimed any major breakthrough so far. When Harish Rao attended the SIT questioning on 21 January, he said the case was nothing but a political vendetta and denied any wrongdoing. KTR, before attending the SIT questioning today, also called the probe a diversionary tactic by the Congress government. He questioned why senior police officials were spared, denied wrongdoing, and said the investigation had turned into a media spectacle.
