Phone-Tapping Case: Supreme Court Extends Custody Of Ex-SIB Chief T Prabhakar Rao Till Dec 25

The Supreme Court, today, extended the custody of former Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao, who is an accused in the phone-tapping case.

The Court also ordered that no coercive action must be taken against Rao after he is released from police custody until the next date of hearing.

The bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan ordered, "The Respondent-state has filed a Status Report pursuant to our order dated 11.12.2025. While detailing the steps that have been taken into interrogation of the petitioner herein, the prayer here is made for the continuation of the police custody for one week so the interrogation may be completed. We have heard the learned counsel for the Petitioner in response to the request made by the Respondent-State. We consequently extend the police custodynof the Petitioner till 25th December, 2025. On 26th December, 2025, the Petitioner shall be released from custody. Since the matter is pending before this court, no coercive steps must be taken against the Petitioner herein till the next date of hearing...Other directions contained in our order dated 11.12.2025 shall continue."

Senior Advocates Ranjit Kumar, Dama Seshadri Naidu, and Aditya Sondhi appeared on behalf of the Petitioner, whereas Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, along with Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, appeared for the State.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted the details of the investigation, i.e. case diary to the Court.

Senior Advocate Kumar said, "10 am to 10 pm every day, for the last seven days. Two officers come at one time, then two other officers come..."

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, "Somehow in this matter they have been able to create an impression that this matter is political...Suppose a political executive tells me to shoot someone...Can I say, I did it only because I was instructed to...His argument is that since left wing extremisim as my job, I was surveilling everyone who was left wing extremisim."

Justice Nagarathan said, "See nowadays we all are in an open world, nobody is in a closed world...nobody should be bothered about surveillance, unless they have something to hide..."

Solicitor General Mehta remarked, "We will have to remove the impression that this is a political issue, this is not a political issue...The President of India can also not tell someone to put someone on illegal surveillance."

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar submitted, "Apart from the medical conditions, the DK Basu Judgment is required to be monitored. What they want is a self-incriminating statement from him and to incriminate others...Articles 20 and 21 are all being violated."

Senior Advocate Luthra said, "In the anticipatory bail, the court asked him to surrender and put him in police custody. The question is, after that, whether the anticipatory bail will revive or not?... This legal issue we will have to see."

Justice Nagarathna replied, "We did it in the interest of the investigation."

Rao has moved the Apex Court challenging an order of the Telangana High Court, which dismissed his plea seeking anticipatory bail. On December 11, 2025, the Court directed Prabhakar Rao to surrender before the police by December 12, 2025.

On December 10, 2025, the state government had alleged that Rao was still withholding his iCloud accounts despite the court order.

The Apex Court on May 29 granted interim protection from coercive action to Rao and directed him to give an undertaking that he would return to India within three days after the receipt of his passport.

On May 22, a Hyderabad court issued a proclamation order against Rao in the phone tapping case.

Accordingly, the matter is now listed for a further date.

Cause Title: T. Prabhakar Rao v. The State of Telangana [SLP (Crl.) No(s). 7354/2025]