Phone-tapping case: Telangana Congress chief deposes before SIT
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and member of legislative council (MLC) B Mahesh Kumar Goud on Tuesday deposed before the special investigation team (SIT) of the state police probing the alleged illegal tapping of phones of several high-profile people including politicians, officials, journalists, judges and celebrities during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) regime.
The SIT summoned Goud as a witness in the case, based on a complaint filed by him in 2023, suspecting that the then-BRS government was tapping his mobile phone.
Speaking to reporters after coming out of the SIT office, the TPCC chief said the police had recorded his statement in connection with the phone tapping case. He said his phone number was among those tapped during the tenure of the BRS regime. 'The officials informed me that my number too was under surveillance. I have given my complete statement to the SIT without any reservations,' he said.
Describing phone tapping as an undemocratic and unconstitutional act, Goud recalled that during the 2023 elections, while he was serving as the PCC working president alongside then-TPCC President A Revanth Reddy, a formal complaint was lodged with the chief secretary regarding these illegal activities.
'Not just Congress leaders, but over 650 phones belonging to key leaders from various parties, including the BJP and TDP, were illegally tapped. The then-BRS government acted in a disgraceful and conspiratorial manner, aiming to silence the opposition and suppress rival parties,' Goud alleged.
He went on to state that phone tapping was one of the major reasons behind the Congress party's defeat in the 2018 Assembly elections. 'Every constituency where we lost was subjected to surveillance. Our communications were monitored with the intention of sabotaging our election strategies,' he charged.
Soon after losing power, the BRS leadership hurriedly got the crucial hard disks containing evidence of phone tapping destroyed. 'In a sinister plot to brand us as sympathizers of Naxalites, our phones were illegally monitored. This entire operation was carried out to tarnish our image and subvert democracy,' he added.
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