Hyderabad: In a setback to former SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao, prime accused in the phone-tapping case of the BRS government tenure, the Telangana High Court on Friday refused to grant anticipatory bail. Justice J. Sreenivas Rao of the High Court dismissed the criminal petition filed by Prabhakar Rao, in which he sought pre-arrest bail.The judge also dismissed the interim application filed by Prabhakar Rao seeking “interim protection from arrest” so that he could return to India and appear before the investigating officer. A copy of the judgment is awaited.Subsequent to the registration of FIR in the phone-tapping case, Prabhakar Rao fled to the US on March 11, 2024. After the revocation of his passport and following steps taken by the state police for issuing a red corner notice, Prabhakar Rao approached the High Court for pre-arrest bail on March 21, 2025, and submitted that he would abide by any condition imposed by the High Court for giving anticipatory bail.After the police filed their counter-affidavit, Justice Sreenivas Rao commenced hearing in Prabhakar Rao’s plea. Marathon submissions were made by counsels of the state government and public prosecutor Palle Nageshwar Rao, as well as counsel for Prabhakar Rao and the counsel for implead petitioner Sreedhar Rao of Sandhya Conventions. The judge had reserved orders on April 30.Amongst the six accused in the case, four have got bail after spending nearly a year in jail: Dugyala Praneeth Rao, Nayini Bhujanga Rao, P. Radhakrishan Rao and Mekala Tirupatanna. Aruvela Shravan Kumar Rao of iNews, Accused No, 6, who also fled to the US secured interim protection of “not to arrest” from the Supreme Court and had appeared before the investigating officer.With the High Court denying him relief, it was expected that Prabhakar Rao may approach the Supreme Court.
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