Telangana: Criminal conspiracy case registered against former DSP Praneeth for allegedly destroying intel data

Mar 10, 2024

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], March 10 : A criminal conspiracy case has been registered by the Special Investigation Branch (SIB) against former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Dugyala Praneeth Rao, police said.
Praneeth is also known as a close aide to former CM K Chandrashekar Rao.
The Additional SP of the SIB complained to the Panjagutta Police Station about former SIB DSP Praneeth.
According to the FIR, Praneeth, while working in SIB, had two rooms exclusively for himself, unlike other teams, and operated with 17 systems issued to him.
He also had an exclusive and dedicated leased line with an internet connection. Through this setup, he allegedly developed profiles of unknown persons and monitored them, without authorization and illegally, it added.
Upon investigation, it was revealed that Praneeth, by misusing and abusing his official position, regularly copied intelligence information into his drives and kept it under his custody.
It was further alleged that after the prevision election results, on December 4, 2023, Praneeth Rao turned off the cameras and destroyed old hard drives containing data gathered over decades, including information he obtained, to avoid suspicion. To avoid any criminal action against himself and others and to destroy the evidence he turned off the CCTV cameras.
As per the FIR, Panjagutta Police booked Praneet Rao under sections 409, 427, 201, 120b,r/w 34 IPC, 3 PDPPA, 65, 66, 70 ITA-2000-2008.