Former Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T. Prabhakar Rao surrendered before police in Hyderabad on Friday following a Supreme Court directive, officials said.

Rao appeared before the investigating officer at the Jubilee Hills police station at 11 a.m., as instructed by the apex court.

A suspended DSP of the SIB is among four police officials arrested by Hyderabad police since March 2024 for allegedly erasing intelligence information from electronic devices and conducting phone-tapping during the previous BRS regime.

They were later granted bail.

Police had said the accused were part of an alleged conspiracy to "misuse" SIB resources for political purposes by placing citizens from various walks of life under surveillance.

"Those named as accused in the case along with others had allegedly developed profiles of several persons unauthorisedly and were accused of monitoring them clandestinely and illegally in SIB and using them in a partisan manner to favour a political party at the behest of some persons. They were also accused of conspiring in destroying the records to cause disappearance of evidence of their crimes," police had earlier said.

Rao’s surrender followed a Supreme Court order. On Thursday, a bench comprising Justices B. V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan said the direction was for the purpose of further investigation into offences against Rao.

"We direct the petitioner to surrender before the Jubilee Hills police station and the investigating officer by 11.00 am tomorrow...the custodial interrogation to be done in accordance with law. List on Friday. Liberty is reserved to the petitioner herein to have food from his home as well as medication regularly," the bench said.

The apex court had on May 29 granted Rao interim protection from coercive action and asked him to give an undertaking that he would return to India within three days of receiving his passport.

Rao had approached the Supreme Court challenging a Telangana High Court order that dismissed his plea for anticipatory bail.

Earlier, on May 22, a Hyderabad court had issued a proclamation order against Rao in the phone-tapping case. The order stated that Rao could be declared a "proclaimed offender" if he failed to appear before the court by June 20.

If declared a proclaimed offender, the court may order attachment of the accused’s properties.