Supreme Court Directs Former Telangana Intelligence Chief T Prabhakar Rao to Surrender for Custodial Interrogation

The Supreme Court today directed former Telangana State Intelligence Bureau chief T Prabhakar Rao to surrender before the Jubilee Hills Police Station, Hyderabad by 11:00 a.m. tomorrow for custodial interrogation in the alleged illegal phone-tapping case.

A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan passed this order in light of the State's allegation that no electronic data could be recovered from Rao's iCloud accounts, and that he deleted electronic evidence while enjoying interim protection from arrest granted by the Court.

Court Observations on Investigation

Justice Nagarathna observed: “Their contention is that there is no material which they can gather from your party because the data is not available. It may be somewhere else…We will keep the matter pending. Let there be a custodial interrogation. And you tell us from when to when you will have the custodial interrogation, of course on the condition that no physical harm is done to him, he is a senior citizen.”

The Court passed the order while hearing Rao's anticipatory bail plea. The Court clarified that it has not dismissed the anticipatory bail, but kept it pending.

Justice Nagarathna further added: “We are not dismissing it. We are just saying that let there be an effective investigation, interrogation whatever minus any physical torture or hardship. We are just trying to balance the interest of the in petitioner and at the same time the investigation.”

State Allegations Against Rao

The State alleged that Rao, accused of intercepting phones of politicians, high court judges, and others to aid the previous BRS government, had not complied with the Court's earlier direction to reset all his iCloud passwords.

In October, the Court had ordered him to reset and share the passwords with the police in the presence of forensic experts, after the State claimed he had formatted devices and destroyed evidence while under interim protection.

Rao maintained that deletion of data took place under official protocol on the basis of orders of a Review Committee due to the sensitivity of the information.

However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the State, contended that the data was destroyed prematurely, and hard disks were destroyed and thrown in a river. The State further alleged that Rao had reset passwords for only two out of five iCloud accounts.

Petitioner's Response

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Rao, stated that one account could not be reset because the associated US mobile number was deactivated and could not be reactivated.

The bench repeatedly asked about missing electronic data, the hard drives removed and replaced, and whether any written permission existed for such actions.

Justice Mahadevan remarked on the disappearance of large amounts of data: “You removed almost 26 hard drives. When you were directed to give the password you said you forgot everything. Later you were able to remember everything. When they accessed it nothing was available. Ten years of data collected, nothing was available. Is it not a crime?”

Kumar responded that the data was deleted on the order of the Review Committee, and requested production of minutes of the Review Committee meeting dated December 2, 2023, to support this position.

The State informed the Court that no data was found on Rao's iCloud accounts and that Apple had confirmed activity on those accounts before he appeared for investigation. It needed to be investigated whether the data was deleted.

Custodial Interrogation Ordered

Justice Nagarathna noted the State's contention that no material was available and the data may be elsewhere. Kumar responded that Rao had complied with the direction to reset and share passwords, and the State must show some basis to allege he was withholding information.

The Court indicated that custodial interrogation was necessary to enable an effective investigation, emphasizing that Rao must not be subjected to physical harm due to his age and status.

Kumar suggested house arrest for interrogation, but the Solicitor General opposed, stating Rao had held a key position and had evaded and destroyed evidence. The Court ordered Rao to surrender by 11:00 a.m. tomorrow before the investigation officer at Jubilee Hills Police Station for further investigation.

Justice Nagarathna initially dictated that the State is restrained from causing him any physical harm. However, after objections, the Court clarified that custodial interrogation would be conducted in accordance with law. Rao was permitted to have home-cooked food and regular medication during custody.

Kumar emphasized that the surrender should not render Rao's anticipatory bail application infructuous. Justice Nagarathna clarified that the petition remains pending and modified the earlier interim direction of no coercive steps against Rao.

Case Title: T. Prabhakar Rao v. State of Telangana