Snooping case: Fmr BRS MLA skips appearance before police

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police probing the case on phone-tapping sent notices to former BRS MLA Chirumarthi Lingaiah to appear for questioning on Monday. However, he sought time till November 14 for appearance.

Lingaiah was the first non-official who was summoned as a part of the investigation into the phone-tapping case. The investigation officer had issued notice to him for questioning at the Jubilee Hills ACP office, but he did not appear, citing health reasons.

Sources said he will be questioned about new evidence that came to light in the Forensic Science Laboratory report. Evidence showed that there was an alleged line of communication with Tirupatanna, a suspended additional superintendent of police, named as an accused in the case.

The phone-tapping and snooping row came to light after the BRS lost power to the Congress; an official in SIB who was part of the operation was found destroying the collected data. In March, a case was registered with the Panjagutta police after a petition was filed by an additional SP, (SIB) D Ramesh.

Former DSP Praneeth Rao was arrested for allegedly destroying hard disks and other data after the Congress came to power in December last year. The police later arrested Bhujanga Rao, Tirupathanna, and former DCP P Radhakishan Rao.

The former chief of SIB in Telangana and another accused are absconding. They are suspected to be in the US. The suspended DSP and his team developed profiles of hundreds of people and intercepted phone calls of several others, the police said.

The accused have allegedly put the phones of some political leaders, a high court judge, his family members, and others under surveillance.