Phone tapping accused Shravan Kumar Rao arrested in Rs 6.58 cr fraud

Hyderabad: In a noteworthy turn of events, the CCS police in Hyderabad have arrested A Shravan Kumar Rao, a prime accused in the case of phone tapping. Rao had earlier been accused of being part of illegal surveillance operations, but now he faces charges in relation to a serious financial fraud case as well.

The arrest follows a complaint filed by Akarsh Krishna, director of Akhand Infratech India Private Ltd, who alleged that Rao and his group cheated the company of more than Rs 6.58 crore.

Akhand Infratech alleges Rao, associates duped company

The complaint states that from November 2022 to December 2023, Akhand Infratech remitted money to the bank account of Acore Industries on the basis of a proposed iron ore trading agreement. Yet, the said transactions failed to occur, and all correspondence supposedly went through Rao’s office with no direct Acore Industries’ invoices.

The CCS filed a case on April 25 under the provisions of sections 316(5) (criminal breach of trust by banker, merchant, or agent), 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Rao’s wife A Swathy Rao, business partner KB Vedamurthy, and director of Acore Industries, Uma Maheshwar Reddy, have also been cited as co-accused in the case.

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Rao earlier questioned in BRS-era surveillance scandal

Rao’s own legal problems are further aggravated by his suspected involvement in the phone tapping scandal that was revealed in March 2024. Accused No 6 in the case, Rao, was earlier interrogated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on allegations of unauthorised surveillance carried out during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.

Investigating officials charge that Rao was in constant touch with former Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T Prabhakar Rao and DSP Praneeth Rao, cooperating in taking statements on political leaders.

Having evaded the authorities for more than a year, Rao came back to India in March 2025 after an interim bail from arrest was accorded by the Supreme Court. He turned up for questioning before the SIT on March 29, during which he is stated to have claimed ignorance of the phone tapping operations.

After his arrest on Tuesday, the CCS police said they would produce Rao before a judge at the Nampally court. Due to the situation, he was produced directly at the judge’s residence for the hearing.

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