Phone-tapping case is political vendetta, attention diversion from coal scam: KTR

BRS working president KT Rama Rao termed the phone-tapping case a politically motivated diversion by the Congress government. He accused the SIT of acting at the Chief Minister’s behest, said he would comply with the summons, and alleged misuse of police machinery

Sircilla: BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Thursday called the phone-tapping case a deliberate diversion engineered by the Congress government to divert public attention from the coal scam involving the Chief Minister’s kin. Terming the case bogus and trash and triggered by political vendetta, he said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was functioning at the behest of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

Despite his criticism, he said he would comply with the SIT notice. “I have done nothing wrong and have nothing to fear. I will attend the questioning and ask the SIT some questions of my own,” he said, reiterating that the case lacked substance and was meant only to buy time for the government.

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Reacting to the SIT notice summoning him for questioning, Rama Rao said the investigation had degenerated into a political drama. It was being dragged like a daily serial to target opposition leaders whenever the Chief Minister needed a diversion from his failures, he said, maintaining that the probe amounted to political harassment and warning against the misuse of police machinery for partisan ends.

Questioning the scope of the probe, he said phone tapping was an intelligence function used by police agencies across governments since the Nehru era for maintaining law and order and preventing conspiracies. “Ministers and political leaders have no operational role in this. If tapping happened, intelligence officers would know, not politicians,” he argued.

The BRS working president questioned why senior police officials, including current DGP Shivdhar Reddy, former DGPs M Mahender Reddy and Ravi Gupta, and current Home Secretary Jithender, who headed intelligence and law enforcement during the previous BRS regime, were not being summoned. The SIT was avoiding officers who could provide substantive answers and was instead dragging political leaders into an endless inquiry to create headlines.

He challenged the government to produce any senior official willing to state publicly that opposition leaders’ phones were not currently being tapped. He said the case was being sustained for two years through selective leaks without a single official briefing. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was using the controversy to mask the Congress government’s failure to deliver on electoral promises, including its six guarantees, he said.

“For a few days it is Kaleshwaram, then phone tapping, followed by Formula E and later some other so-called scam. This government has nothing to show on governance,” he said, adding that the timing of the summons was revealing.

“When senior BRS leader Harish Rao exposed the coal scam involving the Chief Minister’s brother-in-law, notices were issued by evening. But there is no SIT on the coal scam,” he pointed out.

The former Minister said both the Congress in the State and the BJP at the Centre were shielding each other. He questioned why the Centre did not act on allegations of coal contracts, AMRUT irregularities, Kancha Gachibowli land transactions and even RR Tax allegations levelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders.

Asking whether the phones of opposition leaders and even Ministers were currently being tapped, Rama Rao challenged the State DGP and Intelligence chief to deny it on record. He cited earlier claims by Congress leaders, including Ministers Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and N Uttam Kumar Reddy, that their phones were tapped, noting that such allegations were never formally denied by the Congress government.

He also cautioned the police against becoming scapegoats in the political game by the Congress.