SIT serves notice to KCR in phone-tapping case; KTR, Harish call it political vendetta

The SIT has issued a notice to former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in the phone tapping case, seeking his examination on Friday. BRS leaders termed the move politically motivated, while the investigation continues amid heightened political tensions

Hyderabad: In a significant development in the phone tapping case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has issued a formal notice to BRS president and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, seeking his examination in the case filed at the Panjagutta police station. The SIT has asked him to make himself available for questioning on Friday at 3 pm.

Officials served the notice at Chandrashekhar Rao’s Nandi Nagar residence, informing him that investigators believe he may be acquainted with facts relevant to the case. Citing legal safeguard under Section 160 of the CrPC, the officials said that since the BRS chief was above 65 years of age, he was not required to appear at a police station. Instead, he could choose a convenient location within Hyderabad for the examination, and that the investigating team would visit him there.

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The move marked a sharp escalation in the politically sensitive case, which has already seen questioning of several senior BRS leaders including KT Rama Rao, T Harish Rao and J Santosh Kumar linked to the previous BRS government.

Rama Rao came down heavily on the Congress government over the notice, terming it an act of political revenge rather than genuine investigation. Pointing out that Chandrashekhar Rao had spearheaded the Telangana statehood movement and even risked his life to achieve statehood, he recalled that the visionary leader steered the State’s development for a decade after the State formation, by ensuring development and welfare of all citizens through novel initiatives like Rythu Bandhu, Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya and numerous irrigation projects.

The Congress, which came to power with grand promises, had failed to deliver and was now resorting to diversionary tactics in the name of investigations, he said, adding that the government was attempting to tarnish Chandrashekhar Rao’s reputation to cover up its own failures.

“This is not an investigation, but revenge. This is not justice, but political malice,” he remarked, stating that the Congress government was using investigation agencies as tools to intimidate the opposition with notices and probes.

The BRS working president asserted that Chandrashekhar Rao remained a people’s leader and warned that any attempt to undermine his legacy would invite a public backlash. He reiterated that the BRS would continue to resist vindictive politics and take the fight to the people.

Former Minister Harish Rao strongly condemned the notice and said the government’s actions were driven by political vendetta rather than law. Calling the BRS supremo the architect of Telangana and a leader revered by millions, Harish Rao said targeting him was an insult and direct attack on the self-respect of the State. He said Revanth Reddy was attempting to malign Chandrashekhar Rao’s reputation to deflect attention from the Congress government’s failures and involvement of Congress leaders in multiple scams including the Singareni tenders scam and microbreweries licences scam.

Questioning the timing of the SIT action which indicated desperation within the ruling Congress ahead of municipal elections, he said the government was using investigative agencies as political tools to harass the opposition and divert public focus from governance issues.

“Power is not permanent, and arrogance even less so,” he warned, asserting that the people of Telangana would stand by Chandrashekhar Rao and respond politically to the Congress government’s attempts to intimidate the BRS leadership.