Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], January 23 (ANI): Bharath Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao on Friday appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the phone-tapping case in Hyderabad.

Earlier in the day, 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.

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.

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.

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)