Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Y.S. Sharmila has alleged her phones were tapped by the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government in collusion with her brother and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy “to damage my political career”.
Sharmila’s sensational claims come at a time when a Telangana Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Revanth Reddy-led Congress government has intensified its probe into the alleged phone-tapping activities during the KCR-led BRS government in the state.
The SIT is presently questioning retired IPS officer and former special intelligence branch chief T. Prabhakar Rao, the prime accused in the case, following his return to India earlier this month after about 15 months in the United States apparently to evade the probe and possible arrest.
The accusation is that based on the orders of the then political bosses, certain police officers, led by Rao, kept a surveillance on phone conversations of several opposition leaders, including the now incumbent chief minister Revanth Reddy, businesspersons, civil servants and also some media personnel.
The case was registered in Hyderabad in March 2024, three months after the Congress came to power trouncing the two-term BRS dispensation.
A few police officers including former Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) DSP Praneeth Rao were arrested last year in connection with the case.
The SIT is also questioning witnesses, probing the alleged interception of calls made to and from about 600 individuals, more so during the BRS second term up until 2-3 months before the 2023 polls.
BRS leaders have been denying their involvement in any surveillance activities.
On Tuesday, former minister and BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao sent a legal notice to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mahesh Kumar Goud, condemning his “baseless and degrading allegations, and false claims” on phone-tapping and demanding an immediate unconditional apology from him.
Goud appeared before the SIT on Tuesday to testify in the case, and accused the previous BRS government of orchestrating a massive and illegal phone-tapping network in order to outsmart the opposition parties, leaders and manipulate the election process.
Talking to reporters later, Goud demanded the registration of cases against and punishment for KCR and KTR, while charging that “mass interception of calls, messages, and chats weakened the Congress fight in the 2018 polls.”
Speaking to reporters at Visakhapatnam Wednesday, Sharmila said the phone-tapping in Telangana was “a fact, during the previous political term, when KCR was CM there (Telangana) and Jagan in Andhra Pradesh.”
“KCR, KTR and Jagan maintained very cordial relations even putting the siblings blood relation to shame,” said Sharmila, Jagan’s younger sister. “Jagan wanted to see that I do not grow politically, financially. He wanted to bury my future. People supporting me were threatened… phone-tapping was also part of this conspiracy.”
Sharmila, the daughter of late Congress chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, parted ways with her brother and YSRCP chief Jagan, who was then Andhra CM, in 2021. She had then formed the YSR Telangana Party in Hyderabad to focus on Telangana politics.
The YSR siblings are also involved in a bitter fight over assets and sharing of properties, a matter which went before the National Company Law Tribunal too.
“Phone-tapping in Telangana is absolutely true. I don’t know if it was a joint operation or information-sharing arrangement between the then regimes but what is clear is that phones were being tapped. I was sure that my phones, my husband’s and those of people close to me were being tapped,” Sharmila said, claiming it was confirmed to her by senior YSRCP leader and Jagan’s close associate Y.V. Subba Reddy.
“Subba Reddy visited me at my Hyderabad residence once and informed me about this. He even played an audio conversation from one tapping for me to listen. I doubt if Subba Reddy will now admit this,” Sharmila said, suspecting Jagan’s influence on him.
“But this is the truth and I am ready to depose before any investigation, promising on the Bible and on my kids,” said the Congress leader while urging the Revanth and Chandrababu Naidu governments to “take up the issue seriously”.
“Now, the governments have changed in both states. I am willing to cooperate with any probe. The culprits should be punished. Phone-tapping is not just unethical, it is illegal, and a violation of Constitutional rights.”
Also Read: Political rivalry & now an NCLT plea over ‘illegal share transfer’. YSR siblings’ bitter feud baffles AP
‘Just to deflect public attention’
On Tuesday, BRS Working President KTR slammed the Congress government and leaders for bringing up the phone-tapping issue “without any evidence, merely to deflect public attention from its inability to fulfill election promises.”
“The Congress government, which failed to implement any of its guarantees since coming to power, is now indulging in theatrics using fabricated issues like phone-tapping. Making such disgraceful and unfounded accusations… without a shred of evidence, is highly condemnable,” he said, according to a press statement from his office.
Referring to his questioning by the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with the alleged Formula E races scam, KTR said that “as a law-abiding citizen, he has even cooperated with inquiries into politically motivated cases filed against him.”
The BRS leader accused the Congress leaders of “raking up the phone-tapping issue once again with the malicious intention of misleading voters in the upcoming local body elections”.
“The so-called case will yield nothing even as both the chief minister and the PCC president are competing in a race of lies,” KTR said, while warning that Mahesh Goud will be held accountable in the courts for making “irresponsible and politically motivated remarks.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: Sharmila ‘is also YSR’s blood’, but in family bastions Kadapa & Pulivendula, brother Jagan is supreme
