As the phone tapping case takes twists and turns opening new gateways into the ‘illegal’ tapping of phones in the previous BRS government, two senior police officers, arrested on Saturday night, were sent to 14 days of judicial custody till April 6.
The two arrested officers — Additional DCP of CSW Thirupathanna and Additional SP of Bhupalpally N. Bhujanga Rao were presented before the judge and remanded to 14 days of judicial custody. Police officials are likely to submit a petition before the court for their custody to question them about the exact nature of their involvement. Officials from the West Zone police of Hyderabad said that they confessed to their involvement in the reported crimes including conspiracy to monitor private persons illegally by developing their profiles and abusing their official positions. “They were reportedly following the advice of D. Praneeth Kumar alias Praneeth Rao, the DSP (under suspension), formerly working in the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) and destroyed public property to conceal their involvement,” explained the officials.
Thirupathanna was formerly the Additional SP of SIB, while Bhujanga Rao was the then Additional SP of the Intelligence Department.
Praneeth Kumar was arrested on March 13 by the Panjagutta police from his residence in the Srinagar Colony of Rajanna-Sircilla district following a complaint from his superior D. Ramesh, Additional SP with the Special Intelligence Branch, stating that there had been “a concerning pattern of his behaviour during his time as an Inspector and later as DSP with the SIB from 2018 to 2023.”
As per the complaint, Mr. Praneeth was involved in dismantling and destroying data in 42 hard drives and replacing them with new ones. Moreover, he also dismantled and destroyed equipment containing data by turning off the cameras on the night of December 4, 2023, the day Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lost the Telangana Assembly Elections 2023. He was booked under Sections 409, 427, 201 and 120 (B) of the IPC and cases were also registered under the Prevention of Destruction of Public Records Act (PDPP Act), 1984 and the Information Technology Act (ITA).
