Hyderabad, June 1 Telangana former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T. Prabhakar Rao, a key accused in the phone tapping case who has been allegedly evading arrest for a year, is likely to appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) this week.
The retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who has been in the United States for 14 months, is expected to arrive as directed by the Supreme Court last week.
Prabhakar Rao is reported to have conveyed to the SIT that he would appear before it on June 5.
The retired police officer has given an undertaking to the Supreme Court that he will return to India soon after receiving a one-time entry passport and cooperate with the investigation.
The investigating team hopes to make big progress in the case relating to the alleged tapping of phones of politicians, businessmen, journalists and even judges under the previous government of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The Supreme Court on May 29 ordered the authorities to return the passport to Prabhakar Rao to enable him to return to India.
The Apex Court had also directed Prabhakar Rao to give an affidavit of undertaking that, within three days of the receipt of the passport/travel document, he will return to India.
A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma had passed the order on a petition by Prabhakar, challenging the Telangana High Court order dismissing his petition for anticipatory bail.
The bench also barred police from taking any coercive step against Rao till further orders.
Prabhakar Rao's counsel had submitted to the court that he had to apply for special permission to return to India as his passport had been suspended.
The court was told that he had gone to the US when the First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him. The retired IPS officer was subsequently declared an absconder, and his passport was also revoked.
Stating that Prabhakar Rao has been hounded by the present government in Telangana, the lawyer also brought to the court's notice that a red-corner notice has been issued against him.
Nampally criminal court in Hyderabad recently issued proclamation orders against Prabhakar Rao for evading proceedings for over a year.
Prabhakar Rao, who was heading the SIB when BRS was in power, has been declared an absconder by the SIT probing the case.
Prabhakar Rao had allegedly constituted a team within SIB with his trusted aides, including Praneeth Rao, for surveillance of rival political leaders, their families and dissidents within the ruling party, businessmen, journalists and even judges.
The allegations under the previous government of BRS came to light in March last year with the arrest of Deputy Superintendent of Police Praneeth Rao following a complaint from his superior, D. Ramesh, Additional SP with the SIB.
The police have so far named six accused in the case. Praneeth Rao, Additional SPs Thirupathanna and Bhujanga Rao and former DCP P. Radha Kishan Rao were arrested in the case.
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