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Phone-tapping case moved to Siddipet: fresh FIR against Harish Rao with added sections; he calls it revenge
Police moved the phone-tapping case against BRS leader T. Harish Rao from Panjagutta to Siddipet One Town station and registered a fresh FIR with five or six added sections, naming him accused no. 1 and ex-DCP Radha Kishan Rao no. 2. Harish Rao calls it political revenge.
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Police in Telangana have moved the phone-tapping case against BRS leader T. Harish Rao from Hyderabad's Panjagutta police station to Siddipet and registered a fresh FIR with additional sections. The FIR was re-registered at the Siddipet One Town police station on Saturday, 31 October, and Circle Inspector Mahender announced the details on Sunday. It names Harish Rao, a former minister and the Siddipet MLA, as accused no. 1 and former DCP Radha Kishan Rao as accused no. 2, along with others.
The complaint and the new sections
The complainant is Chakradhar Goud, a Siddipet businessman who contested the 2023 Assembly election from the constituency. He alleges that Harish Rao and Radha Kishan Rao had the mobile phones of his family members, including his wife's, intercepted during those elections. The first case was registered at Panjagutta in December 2024.
The new FIR adds more provisions. One report counts five added sections and Telugu-language reports count six. The sections listed include Indian Penal Code sections 419, 420, 467 and 406, and provisions of the Information Technology Act. Police have cited the claim that the tapping took place in Siddipet as the reason for moving the case there.
Harish Rao went to the Telangana High Court to have the original FIR quashed, and the court did so in March 2025, citing a lack of material to establish his involvement. In January 2026 the Supreme Court dismissed the state government's petitions against that order. One report says the complainant has also challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court, and no new court order was reported in connection with the transfer.
Separately, a Special Investigation Team of the Telangana police has been probing alleged surveillance by the state's Special Intelligence Branch under the previous BRS government. It questioned Harish Rao for more than seven hours in January and issued a notice to K.T. Rama Rao.
Harish Rao said the High Court had dismissed the case and the Supreme Court had rejected it. He called the re-registration political revenge by the state government, linked to his questions about land-related irregularities and the implementation of the Congress government's six guarantees. He said the added sections have no connection with the original complaint, called the move a sign of the police's and the government's bankruptcy, and said he would continue to fight for the public. Neither the government nor the police have responded beyond the Circle Inspector's statement.
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