Suspended police officer M. Srinivasa Rao allegedly hacked into the e-mail account of his superior officer to acquire the phone call data of a senior Andhra Pradesh CBI official regarding the ongoing probe by the agency into the disproportionate assets case filed against YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy, CID sources said on Saturday.
Rao, who was recently placed under suspension as Nacharam police inspector for his alleged complicity in accessing and leaking the call data records (CDRs) of CBI joint director (Hyderabad Zone) V.V. Lakshminarayana and a woman activist, was grilled by the state CID on the second consecutive day after taking over the investigations on Friday.
Rao allegedly stole the e-mail account password of a deputy commissioner of police (DCP) under Cyberabad zone with the help of a lower-rank employee and forwarded a request to the service provider for getting the CDRs, police said.
Rao misused his official position since only a SP or DCP rank officer is entitled to send request to service providers for the phone call data records of consumers, they said.
The Andhra Pradesh CID on Friday took over the investigation into the cases over 'leakage' of phone calls details of Lakshminarayana and activist Vasireddy Chandrabala.
While City Police had registerd a case in this regard on the complaint of the CBI joint director, Chandrabala approached the Cyberabad police commissionarate.
Rao was suspended by Cyberabad Police Commissioner D Tirumala Rao pending inquiry after a case registered against him and a senior reporter of Telugu news channel, 'Sakshi', on the basis of a complaint lodged by Chandrabala.
Chandrabala on June 26 lodged a complaint stating that the news channel had telecast a programme on June 21 with a view to cause damage to her dignity and reputation by making public the confidential information of the call details of her mobile phone.
Sakshi TV channel, owned by Jagan who was arrested in a disproportionate assets case, had recently released and telecast details of calls, made and received by Lakshminarayana, while accusing him of 'leaking' sensitive information pertaining to the ongoing probe against Jagan to a section of media and his former classmate Chandrabala Vasireddy.
The channel had also claimed that there was a 'big conspiracy' to harm the Kadapa MP.