Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar said the Telangana movement symbolizes self-respect and collective struggle, but illegal tapping of phones of Telangana citizens, officers, political leaders and even their family members is an insult to self-respect.
He described it as a “heinous crime” that will strike at the very foundations of the Telangana Statehood movement and asked the BRS leadership to think why they have to insult Telangana society with such a crime.
Speaking to reporters in Husnabad, he alleged that when those involved in the case were summoned as part of the investigation, they tried to create unrest by calling for violent protests and trying to gain political mileage.
“If the investigation causes so much inconvenience, it only raises serious questions. By tapping phones, you are invading the private lives of individuals and gathering information related to their economic, business, political, professional and family affairs,” Prabhakar said. He claimed that the law would take its own course and clarified that there was no element of revenge or conspiracy in the investigation.
At another press conference, senior Congress leader V. Hanumantha Rao said that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the phone tapping case had already questioned several persons and that former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was being investigated in the same process.
He wondered why BRS was suddenly invoking the issue of self-esteem. “When TRS was renamed BRS, didn’t self-respect come to mind then?” he asked. Criticizing BRS leaders for now talking about vendetta and self-respect, he pointed out that cases had been filed against Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and he had earlier been sent to jail. “Wasn’t it a vendetta?” he asked.
Published – 02 Feb 2026 21:43 IST