Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police are investigating a phone-tapping case and have sent notices to former BRS MLA Chirumarthi Lingaiah. He was asked to appear for questioning on Monday, but he requested more time and will now attend on November 14.
Lingaiah is the first non-official to be summoned as part of the investigation. The investigation officer had asked him to come to the Jubilee Hills ACP office for questioning. However, Lingaiah did not show up, saying he was unwell.
Sources say that Lingaiah will be questioned about new evidence found in a Forensic Science Laboratory report. This evidence reportedly shows that there was communication between him and Tirupatanna, a suspended additional superintendent of police, who is also an accused in the case.
The phone-tapping case came to light after the BRS lost power to the Congress party. It was discovered that an official in the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) was involved in destroying collected data. In March, a case was filed by additional SP D Ramesh, leading to the investigation.
Former DSP Praneeth Rao was arrested for allegedly destroying hard drives and other data shortly after Congress came to power in December. Following this, the police also arrested Bhujanga Rao, Tirupathanna, and former DCP P Radhakishan Rao.
The former chief of the SIB in Telangana and another accused are currently missing and are believed to be in the United States. The suspended DSP and his team are said to have created profiles of hundreds of people and listened in on phone calls of several others, according to police.
The accused are believed to have placed the phones of political leaders, a high court judge, his family members, and others under surveillance.
