Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], January 23 (ANI): BRS MLA K P Vivekanand Goud slammed the Congress government in Telangana and accused it of targeting opposition parties, especially the working President, KTR, and Harish Rao and noted that the investigation into the alleged phone-tapping has been going on for years.

Goud told ANI, 'The Congress government for the past two years has kept on targeting the opposition parties, especially the BRS party, our party working president KTR and Harish Rao... In the phone-tapping case, this inquiry has been ongoing for years... They don't have any evidence... They keep harassing us with these notices, calling us to the police stations and asking us to participate in the investigation...'

BRS workers staged a protest against Telangana CM Revanth Reddy near Jubilee Hills police station as the party's working president, KT Rama Rao (KTR), arrived there to face an SIT interrogation regarding the phone-tapping scandal on Friday.

KTR's car was surrounded by party workers who expressed their anger over the SIT notice by gathering near the police station and sloganeering against the CM. Heavy police were deployed in preparation for his arrival, who tried to remove the protesters from the area.

This comes after KTR received a notice from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday, which was a day after senior BRS leader T Harish Rao was summoned for the same.

Both leaders have criticised the Congress government, especially targeting the CM, calling the SIT probe a 'time-pass', and, earlier today, KTR accused Reddy of character assassination over the last two years.

He alleged that the government was creating a series of 'dramas', citing what he termed the Kaleshwaram drama, the Sheep Scam drama, the Formula E drama, and the phone tapping drama.

He maintained his stance and said he had never been involved in illegal or unjust activities. 'I say this with my conscience as witness,' he asserted.

KTR also claimed that for the past seven to eight years, he had been dealing with 'severe character assassination' against him. 'They tried to falsely link me to drug cases and alleged relationships with heroines. Not just me, my family and my children were also subjected to mental harassment,' he alleged.

Referring to the summons issued to him in connection with the phone tapping case, he said he would cooperate with the inquiry and appear before the authorities. 'I will go and question them. They must answer what mistake our government actually made and where things truly went wrong,' he said.

The Telangana government had constituted a 10-member SIT headed by Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar nearly 21 months after the case was registered. The probe concerns allegations that phones were illegally intercepted by the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB).

Earlier, former DCP P Radhakrishna Rao alleged that telephones belonging to media industry bigwigs, retired cops, and politicians were monitored during the BRS government tenure. He alleged it was done to keep tabs on then Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's political rivals.

During the 2023 assembly elections, officers in Telangana allegedly intercepted the communications of several political leaders, businessmen and Tollywood celebrities, he claimed. (ANI)