ADGP Bhaskar Rao Files Protest Petition against CBI Closure Report in Phone Tapping Case

Bengaluru, August 31: Additional Director General of Police (Railways) Bhaskar Rao on Tuesday filed a protest petition in the CBI special court against the closure report by the CBI in the phone tapping case.

"Yes, I filed a protest report in the CBI court today. Two years back the phone tapping was a big issue in which not only my phone, but also those of several important people were tapped," Rao told PTI.

The police officer also said that the government registered a case and transferred it to the CBI because its implications were far and wide.

Two years after the incident, the CBI came with a report that not a single person has been named and wanted to close the case, Rao said.

He added that he got a certified copy through his lawyers, based on which a protest petition was prepared and filed in the CBI special court.

The case had caused quite a furore in administrative and political circles as it pertained to the purported conversation between Rao and Faraz Ahmed allegedly seeking the Congress top leadership's support to get the former posted as the Bengaluru police commissioner.

When the coalition government collapsed in 2019 and the BJP government came to power, a week after taking charge, the B,S. Yediyurappa-led state government transferred Alok Kumar as Bengaluru Commissioner of police and appointed Rao in his place.

Soon after, the purported audio was allegedly leaked to a journalist in a Kannada news channel who then aired it. Before making it public, the journalist had sent a message and email to Rao seeking his side of the story.

Alarmed by it, Rao ordered an inquiry and later, the government, on the request of Rao and the recommendation of the then Director General of Police, handed over the case to the CBI to probe it.

The CBI report in the special court says that a head constable in the Technical Support Centre (TSC) had got instructions for lawful interception of phone calls of Faraz Ahmed and he heard Rao talking to him.

The CBI report says, "Investigation has revealed that on August 2, 2019, Alok Kumar had asked Mirza Ali Raza, inspector of the TSC to bring the calls pertaining to on Faraz, Misbah Uncle, and Mysore councillor and available important calls of Crime No 157/2018 of Wilson Garden police station in a pen drive to his office."

On Mirza Ali Raza's instruction, head constable Anand handed over the pen drive along with head phone and laptop to Alok Kumar.

The CBI in its recommendation said that there was no direct evidence to prove with certainty that who has leaked the intercepted audio files and from where the journalist got the access of these intercepted audio files.

It said in view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances and in absence of sufficient concrete evidence, allegations of the FIR could not sustain.

"It is, therefore, prayed the final report/closure report in this regard may kindly be accepted," the premier investigation agency said.

Rao in his protest petition requested the CBI special court to reject the final report of the CBI and direct the investigating officer to investigate the case further.