Phone Tap Row

Hyderabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar has issued a notice to BRS leader and former IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar over his claim that seven criminal cases had been registered against him (commissioner). Referring to SIT's questioning of BRS Working President K T Rama Rao in the alleged phone-tapping case, Praveen Kumar claimed that cases were registered against Sajjanar, who is heading the SIT, and other police officers in Andhra Pradesh in 2015.

The cases were linked to the cash-for-vote case involving Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who was then a TDP MLA. In the notice issued on Friday, Sajjanar asked Praveen Kumar to furnish complete details of the alleged cases against him. 

"BRS leader R S Praveen Kumar, IPS (Retd), is hereby called upon to furnish complete and specific details of the alleged seven (07) criminal cases purportedly registered against the SIT Chief (myself) within two (02) days from the date of receipt of this notice," Sajjanar said in a post on X late on Friday. If Praveen Kumar fails to comply with the demand within the stipulated time, appropriate civil and criminal proceedings shall be initiated against him, he said in the notice.

R.S. Praveen Kumar strongly reacted to the notice issued to him by Hyderabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, accusing the police of political bias and attempts to silence dissent. Speaking to the media, he asserted that raising his voice against public issues and injustices is his constitutional right and that he would not be intimidated by threats of civil or criminal action.

Praveen Kumar questioned why a SIT probe was necessary into phone-tapping allegations if Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had publicly described such practices as “common occurrence.” He denied demanding a separate SIT for cases against Sajjanar and clarified that multiple cases were registered in Andhra Pradesh during the 2015 cash-for-vote incident involving Revanth Reddy. He argued that Sajjanar, who served in Telangana Intelligence at the time, was morally unfit to head the SIT investigating the matter.

He defended his role as opposition leader in exposing alleged scams, including coal-related cases, and rejected claims of character assassination. Praveen Kumar highlighted what he called selective targeting of BRS leaders, media leaks, arrests of journalists and activists, and biased police action, while noting that complaints against Revanth Reddy, including alleged government phone tapping, received no official response.