Telephone tapping case accused Thirupathanna’s bail plea rejected

Justice Juvvadi Sridevi of Telangana High Court had on Tuesday dismissed the criminal petition of Mekala Thirupathanna, a suspended police officer of the rank of additional superintendent of police presently in prison, seeking bail in telephone tapping case.

Pronouncing verdict, the judge said the bench was of the view that it was not a fit case to grant bail as the investigators had to ‘analyse voluminous data and file supplementary chargesheet’. The judge noted that while two other crucial witnesses, including the prime accused T. Prabhakar Rao and a private person, were still at large, the data retrieved from the mobile phone of Thirupathanna was also to be examined.

Referring to the decisions of the apex court cited by the petitioner’s counsel V. Surender Rao and Public Prosecutor (Home) Palle Nageshwara Rao, the judge said in the order that those issues cannot be delved into ‘at this stage’ as ‘granting or rejecting the bail depends on facts of each case and gravity of the offence alleged and the necessity of keeping the petitioner in custody’. The judge noted that police had filed voluminous documents containing details of persons whose phones were tapped by the accused and his team members.

‘Prima facie, the information submitted by the prosecution discloses grave misdeeds of the SIB officials, including the petitioner,’ the order said. The petitioner’s counsel contended that Thirupathanna was falsely implicated in the case. He had nothing to do with the alleged developing of profiles of persons, monitoring their communications and destruction of electronic storage devices, the lawyer argued.

Mr. Palle Nageshwara Rao countered the contentions stating that the petitioners and other accused in the case had formed into group at the behest of the then SIB chief T. Prabhakar Rao (who was said to be in USA presently) and used the SIB premises for their illegal activities. Mr. Rao also argued that data of the petitioner’s mobile phone was retrieved by forensic experts after filing the chargesheet.

These details were yet to be analysed and further investigated into. Hence, the bail plea should be rejected, he said.

Published - October 02, 2024 06:07 pm IST