The Supreme Court on Thursday granted an order of protection from arrest to retired IPS officer T. Prabhakar Rao, who is the prime accused in the telephone tapping case and had been residing in the USA, having left Hyderabad after the case was registered by Punjagutta police of Telangana more than a year ago. 

Pronouncing interim orders in the special leave petition filed by Mr. Rao, the bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma said: “No coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner” till the next date of hearing. Towards the end of dictating the order, Justice B.V. Nagarathna, addressing the petitioner’s counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu, said Mr. Rao was not supposed to take advantage of the court order. 

The bench directed that the passport/travel document ‘only to travel to India’ should be made available to the retired police officer. The bench also said the former police officer should appear before the investigating officer within three days of receiving the passport/travel documents, and the retired officer should file an affidavit of undertaking to this extent. 

Mr. Rao left for the USA from Chennai on March 11, 2024, after an FIR was filed that a group of police officers operating from the Special Intelligence Branch attempted to intercept communications of others and destroy electrical gadgets to erase evidence.  

As the investigation progressed, it turned out to be a case of eavesdropping on the phone calls of some individuals, including politicians, bureaucrats and others. The telephones were tapped to please the then political bosses. The retired police officer’s name was included in the case as the first accused. Four other police officers were also arrested in the case. The sixth accused was CEO of a Telugu TV news channel Shravan Rao.

As police continued their efforts to bring Mr. Rao back to India, initially his passport was impounded. Later, the passport was revoked by the Union of India. INTERPOL issued red corner notice for him. Meanwhile, a local court here passed an order recently stating that Mr. Rao would be declared proclaimed offender if he did not appear before it by June 20. 

Mr. Rao moved Telangana HC for anticipatory bail, which was rejected, following which he moved the SC. Even as Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta and senior counsel Siddartha Luthra, assisted by Telangana Public Prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao, vehemently opposed the granting of anticipatory bail.