SC relief for phone-tapping accused T Prabhakar Rao, orders passport restoration | Hyderabad News
HYDERABAD: A vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on Thursday directed the central government and its passport authorities to restore the passport of former chief of Special Intelligence Bureau of Telangana T Prabhakar Rao or issue him a travel document to enable him to come and appear before the investigators of the phone tapping case within three days from the date of receipt of the order of the Supreme Court. Amid resistance from the state of Telangana, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, and the investigation officer, represented by senior counsel Sidharth Luthra, the bench said that they are granting this relief only to enable the accused to return to India from the USA. Stating that the accused had purposefully fled the country after coming to know about the registration of the crime by the Hyderabad police, the state said it wants to get him extradited lawfully. The court has declared him a proclaimed offender who is evading the law, and he cannot be allowed to avail any relief like anticipatory bail or any protection from arrest, the state counsel said.Senior counsel Seshadri Naidu said that the state is hounding Prabhakar Rao. How can he come back if his passport was impounded a year ago? he asked while urging the court to allow him to join the investigation at Hyderabad.The bench said that the accused cannot come back even if he wants to come back because his passport was revoked by the authorities. The bench is of the view that a prolonged extradition process is unnecessary when the accused himself is willing to come back. He should appear before the investigation officer within three days of receiving the Supreme Court order, and he should not try to flee the country again, taking advantage of the court order, the bench said while adjourning the case to August 5.
