Hyderabad: Phones of Congress leaders, including PCC President B Mahesh Kumar Goud, were reportedly tapped during the BRS regime under the label of ‘Maoist sympathisers’. On Tuesday, Goud and other party leaders gave their statements to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police, which is probing the alleged illegal phone tapping.
After giving his statement, Goud spoke to reporters, demanding punishment for those responsible for the phone tapping during the previous administration. He insisted that leaders from the ruling party at the time, who ordered the surveillance on political opponents, along with the IAS and IPS officers who complied, should face consequences.
Goud emphasized that strict punishment is necessary to prevent future governments from engaging in such unethical practices. He blamed the Congress party’s losses in Telangana on the BRS government’s illegal phone tapping activities.
He accused the BRS regime of monitoring several Congress leaders’ phones, including his own and that of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. Goud had previously filed a police complaint suspecting his phone was tapped. “It is now confirmed that since 2022, phones of senior Congress leaders were tapped. The SIT’s list includes 650 Congress leaders whose phones were illegally monitored,” he stated.
Goud criticized the previous government for disregarding the Telegraph Act to conduct illegal activities. He suggested that BRS leaders KCR and KTR should be ashamed of their actions.
The Congress chief remarked that the SIT’s findings reveal how the BRS abused power to carry out phone tapping. He noted that the former government appointed T Prabhakar Rao as intelligence chief post-retirement, a move he claimed is unprecedented in the country. Goud, who served as the working president of the TPCC in November 2023, was allegedly targeted by this illegal surveillance.
