Some more police officers of Telangana are likely to be questioned in the case of “developing profiles of unknown persons and monitoring them” by police from the premises of the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) in Hyderabad, even as three serving officers and one retired officer were arrested.
While D. Praneeth Kumar, a Deputy Superintendent of Police accused of monitoring the movements of targeted people from SIB office, has already been suspended, the State police chief on Saturday suspended two Additional SPs Thirupathanna and N. Bhujanga Rao, following their arrest.
P. Radhakishan Rao has retired as Hyderabad Police Commissioner’s Task Force DCP and was its Officer on Special Duty on extension for nearly three years.
Police officers associated with the investigation, seeking anonymity, said that SIB’s former chief T. Prabhakar Rao emerged as kingpin in the case with the four arrested police officers admitting that whatever they had done was at his behest.
It is clear from their confessions that it was not just these four persons who indulged in illegal activities of tracking individuals. We are surely going to question many more, the top officials said.
The investigators surmised that Mr. Prabhakar Rao allegedly “groomed some police officers” working under him while serving as the SP of Nalgonda district and eventually made them part of his “internal circle” to execute “special tasks” assigned by his political bosses.
Mr. Praneeth Kumar, Mr. Thirupathanna and Mr. Radhakishan Rao worked in Nalgonda earlier. Even Inspector Gattu Mallu, who was questioned along with Mr. Radhakishan Rao and let off, worked in Nalgonda. Investigators believed that Mr. Prabhakar Rao got these officers important postings for carrying out these “special operations”.
Mr. Bhujanga Rao, who was posted in the Intelligence wing, was made chief of a ‘secret cell’ though officially he was in charge of monitoring political developments. “The confessions of the arrested accused made startling revelations but nothing can be said unless we record the statement of Mr. Prabhakar Rao, the officers said.
Depending on the further findings, the investigating officers are likely to invoke the provisions of the Telegraph Act since the “developing of profiles and monitoring” indicated that these officers indulged in eavesdropping.
