MHA says not aware of telephone tapping in Telangana

MHA said there was no need for any approval from MHA as the secretary of the state home department is the competent authority to issue an order for interception of the phones of any subscriber registered in his state

The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had not taken any instructions from the Centre or sought any information from it for carrying out tapping of telephones of various persons, including that of a high court judge, a senior official of the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) said in an affidavit submitted before the Telangana high court on Tuesday.

MHA under-secretary Nutan Kumari submitted an affidavit in response to a suo motu petition taken up by the high court on the reports of the tapping of the phone of a judge. (File)

People familiar with the matter said that MHA under-secretary Nutan Kumari submitted an affidavit in response to a suo motu petition taken up by the high court on the reports of the tapping of the phone of a judge, among others.

In the affidavit, the MHA official said there was no need for any approval from the MHA as the secretary of the state home department is the competent authority to issue an order for interception of the phones of any subscriber registered in his state.

She said both the Union and state governments are authorised to issue directions for lawful interception under Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Rule 419-A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951.

However, according to her, Rule 419-A of Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, though state home secretary accords permission for such interceptions, there is a committee headed by chief secretary that reviews all such approvals for interceptions.

“All interception orders should be sent to the chief secretary within seven days. If the committee headed by the chief secretary chooses not to revoke such permissions, they will remain in force for a period of 60 days and may remain in force, through renewals, for a period of 180 days and not beyond that,” the MHA official said in the affidavit.

Additionally, it was pointed out that records related to lawful interception are classified as highly confidential and are destroyed every six months by the competent authorities, as stipulated in the rules, unless they are needed for ongoing or future investigations.

She said under Section 42(2) of the Telecommunication Act, 2023, any unauthorised access or interception of a telecommunication network or data could result in severe penalties, including imprisonment for up to three years, fines up to ₹2 crore or both.

Meanwhile, special chief secretary of Telangana home department Ravi Gupta also filed a separate counter-affidavit in the high court on Tuesday stating that accused police officers led by then Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao fraudulently obtained permissions from the department by misleading the higher-ups for intercepting phones and internet of selected individuals all over the state.

Gupta was the home secretary from October 2019 to December 2022 when the alleged unauthorised phone tapping started. The home secretary is the competent authority for allowing interception.

He was made acting Director General of Police by the Election Commission during the November 30 assembly elections in the state, in which the BRS lost power and was brought back as the special chief secretary of home department in July this year.

Gupta said Prabhakar Rao was brought in as SIB chief for a period of three years upon his retirement from intelligence wing and played a key role in tapping the phones of various individuals to help the BRS govt in the state

“The then state govt had issued separate orders allowing three senior IPS officers to permit interception on an urgent basis if there was no time to take approval from the competent authority (home secretary). But all such urgent actions had to be approved by the competent authority/home secretary later,” Gupta said.

The home secretary said the SIB team led by Prabhakar Rao, who was made designated authority to carry out tapping of phones, had ignored norms in doing so. He had not taken approval from the competent authority to get his action ratified even after the tapping was done.

He said the SIB team later destroyed the hard discs and all important data on left-wing information collected over the years.