Telangana phone tapping: Court allows police's plea for arrest warrant against two accused, including former SIB chief Prabhakar Rao

HYDERABAD: In response to the plea filed by the Hyderabad police regarding the phone tapping case, the Nampally criminal court on Friday issued an arrest warrant against the absconding accused, former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief Prabhakar Rao, and Shravan Kumar, a senior executive of a vernacular media.
Senior High Court advocate K. Ramakanth Reddy, representing the Hyderabad police in the Nampally court, confirmed the development to TOI.He stated that the court had accepted the police's plea and issued the warrant against the two wanted accused. During the arguments in Nampally court, the police cited the Supreme Court judgment CBI vs. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar as a reference while seeking the warrant against Prabhakar Rao and Shravan Kumar, who are currently in the USA.
Recently, Prabhakar Rao and Shravan Kumar were named as accused by the Hyderabad police in the phone tapping case. Prabhakar was identified as the prime suspect, allegedly involved in surveilling opposition leaders and others during the BRS government by assembling a team of policemen.
The investigators have obtained the arrest warrant as they plan to apply for a Red Corner notice against Prabhakar Rao and Shravan Kumar in their efforts to extradite them back to India. Following the BRS government's election loss in 2023, it was allegedly under Prabhakar Rao's instructions that data from various gadgets in the SIB were erased by Praneeth Rao. Subsequently, the gadgets were destroyed before disposal. These gadgets contained information on the surveillance conducted on opposition leaders.
It is now anticipated that the Hyderabad police will approach the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) through the state's nodal agency, the Crime Investigation Department (CID), to seek a Red Corner notice.