Justice K. Lakshman of Telangana High Court on Thursday quashed the criminal case registered against former Minister T. Harish Rao of BRS and retired police officer P. Radha Kishan Rao, based on a complaint filed by one G. Chakradhar Goud. The charges against the two included extortion, criminal intimidation, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and other charges including tapping of his mobile phone.
According to the complainant, Harish Rao was Minister in the BRS government’s second stint while Radha Kishan Rao was heading Hyderabad Police Commissioner’s Task Force while being on extension of service following his retirement when they allegedly committed the crime. Chakradhar Goud contested in 2023 Assembly elections from Siddipet constituency on BSP ticket and lost to Harish Rao, nephew of former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Nearly a year later, Chakradhar Goud approached the Punjagutta police of Hyderabad alleging that Radha Kishan Rao, at the behest of Harish Rao, illegally detained him in the Task Force office in Secunderabad and indulged in criminal intimidation. Based on his complaint, the Punjagutta police registered a criminal case on December 1, 2024 under Sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation) reads with 34 (common intention) of Indian Penal Code.
The investigators also invoked Section 66 of Information Technology Act as the complainant alleged that his mobile phone and those of his family members were kept under surveillance at the behest of Harish Rao, the then Minister. Challenging this First Information Report, Harish Rao and Radha Kishan Rao filed criminal petitions seeking a direction to quash the criminal case.
Radha Kishan Rao, who was among the four police officers arrested in the sensational case of tapping telephones of persons in important positions, in his plea alleged that the second criminal case was an attempt to implicate him in false case as he had secured bail from the HC in the first case. The first case was also registered by the Punjagutta police in which an officer of Special Intelligence Branch was a complainant.
In that complaint, it was stated that a part of the SIB office was used to keep surveillance on the mobile phones of important persons and the details were stored in some hard discs there. The then SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao was also eventually made the first accused in the case. According to police reports, Mr. Rao left the country soon after registration of the case and is hiding in some parts of the United States of America. Another person, Shravan Rao who was associated with TV news channel is also absconding in the case.
In this case, investigators invoked Indian Telegraph Act relating to charges of tapping the telephones by the accused. In the second case, the Information Technology Act was applied. The detailed order of Justice K. Lakshman was yet to be uploaded on the HC website when reports last came in.
Published – March 20, 2025 08:49 pm IST