The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to unravel the extensive illegal phone-tapping network that operated during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi regime subjected P Rajashekar Reddy, former Officer on Special Duty to then Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, to a rigorous two-hour interrogation on Thursday afternoon. The questioning, conducted at the Jubilee Hills police station in Hyderabad, marks a significant escalation in the probe that has already shaken the political landscape of Telangana and threatens to reach the highest levels of the former ruling dispensation.

Reddy’s appearance before the SIT was triggered by explosive revelations made by Potlapally Radha Kishan Rao, the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police who once headed the controversial Task Force unit. In his detailed confessional statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC, Rao explicitly named K Chandrasekhar Rao as the ultimate authority who sanctioned and monitored the large-scale surveillance of opposition leaders, businessmen, judges, journalists, and even some dissident voices within the BRS itself. Rao’s confession, corroborated by seized digital evidence and call data records, has provided investigators with a direct thread linking the Chief Minister’s Office to the rogue operations of the Special Intelligence Bureau.

Technical evidence recovered by the SIT, including server logs, encrypted communication trails, and metadata from intercepted calls, reportedly established that Rajashekar Reddy functioned as a crucial conduit between the Chief Minister’s Office and the intelligence units executing the illegal tapping. Sources within the investigation team revealed that the former OSD was confronted with specific documents and chat records that allegedly show his active involvement in preparing target lists, relaying instructions, and ensuring the destruction of incriminating material after the change of government in December 2023.

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Throughout the questioning, investigators pressed Reddy on the exact nature of oral and written directives he received from the former chief minister, the funding channels used to procure sophisticated surveillance equipment worth several crores, and the identities of private agencies that were allegedly roped in to supplement the capabilities of the state intelligence apparatus. While the former OSD maintained composure and reportedly answered in measured terms, the SIT is learnt to have recorded discrepancies that may necessitate further rounds of interrogation in the coming week.

With every passing day, the SIT is tightening the circle around key figures of the previous regime, and the intense grilling of Rajashekar Reddy has sent shockwaves through BRS ranks. Senior leaders privately concede that the mounting evidence and the willingness of arrested officers to turn approvers could lead to summons being issued to even more prominent personalities, potentially culminating in direct questioning of K Chandrasekhar Rao himself as the probe moves inexorably toward the top.

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