Hyderabad, Apr 3 (IANS): Denying any involvement in phone tapping, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Wednesday demanded the Congress government to probe the allegations in the matter since 2004.
He told a news conference here that he has nothing to do with phone tapping or any illegal activity and alleged that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was resorting to his character assassination. He warned that if ministers or even Chief Minister make baseless allegations against him on the issue, he will take legal action against them.
The former minister said the Chief Minister has no courage to hold a press conference and produce the evidence before the people.
He recalled that phone-tapping allegations were made during the 10-year rule of Congress before the BRS government came to power. When Kiran Kumar Reddy was the chief minister in 2011, then Congress MPs Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Gaddam Vivek and Ponnam Prabhakar had alleged that Kiran Kumar Reddy was tapping their phones, he said.
KTR dared Revanth Reddy to order a probe into phone tapping since 2004. "If you are sincere, probe the phone tapping since 2004. Widen the ambit of the investigation to probe the allegations made by your own MPs against the then chief minister. Call all the officers including those who have retired. Let us see if your Congress government did phone tapping or not," he said
He mentioned that while the government has changed, the same officials are working even now. He said Shivadhar Reddy, who is now DG intelligence was IG Intelligence in KCR government. Mahender Reddy, who is now chairman of Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) was IG, intelligence when Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister. Mahender Reddy later served as Hyderabad Police Commissioner and Director General of Police (DGP) during BRS rule. Ravi Gupta, who is now DGP, was then home secretary.
"If we believe that phone tapping took place, will none of these officers have any knowledge of this," he asked.
KTR recalled that he had received a message from Apple that his phone was under surveillance and he had posted the screenshot of the same on Twitter. He said the government should find out whose phone was tapped and who did it.