Hyderabad, May 26 -- T Prabhakar Rao, once the head of Telangana's Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), is in a fix after US government's denial of his appeal for political asylum.

Rao is accused of running a vast illegal phone tapping program while in office in the erstwhile Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, and he is now facing increasing pressure to come back to India to face trial.

Phone tapping row

The phone tapping scandal broke out in March 2024 when it was alleged that top SIB officials, led by Rao, carried out illicit eavesdropping on political rivals, journalists, and even judges.

The operation was supposedly meant to help the then-governing BRS party win the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections.

Investigations showed tha...