Former DSP Praneeth Rao Arrested for Opponent Leaders' Phone Tapping!

Allegations have arisen against former DSP Praneeth Rao, also known as Praneeth Kumar, for his involvement in phone tapping of opposition leaders during the previous government's tenure. He was arrested by the Punjagutta police on Tuesday night in the Rajanna-Sircilla district center and was then moved to Hyderabad. Praneeth Rao faces accusations related to misuse of duties in the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), unauthorized phone tapping, and destruction of computers under the charges of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act, and Information Technology (IT) laws.

Praneeth Rao, who worked as a DSP in the SIB during the previous government, reportedly destroyed computers and hard disks on December 4th of last year, the day after the election results were announced. This incident led to a complaint by SIB's Additional SP D. Ramesh to the Punjagutta police last Sunday. An FIR was registered against him under various sections of the IPC, PDPP Act, and IT laws. Prior to his suspension, Rao served as a DSP in the District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB) of Rajanna Sircilla district. He was instructed not to leave the district center after his suspension.

A team from the Punjagutta police had gone to Sircilla on Monday to arrest him but couldn't locate him initially. However, they were able to arrest him on Tuesday night while he was staying in a rented house in the local Srinagar colony and later shifted him to Hyderabad for interrogation at the Punjagutta police station. Questions surrounding who ordered the tapping of opposition leaders' phones, who had influence within the SIB, to whom was the tapped information delivered, and what information was contained in the destroyed computers and hard disks are being investigated.