The Supreme Court on Thursday directed former Telangana Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) chief T. Prabhakar Rao to surrender before the police by 11 am on Friday, bringing fresh urgency to the long-running phone-tapping case that has shadowed the state’s political landscape for months.

A bench of Justices B. V. Nagarathna and R Mahadevan made it clear that the order was necessary for “further investigation” into the offences alleged 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 court’s intervention came after the state told the bench that crucial digital trails still remained beyond investigators’ reach.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the state, submitted that the iCloud accounts opened “do not have any data” and that the linked email addresses “do not open”.

A day earlier, the government had alleged that Rao had not fully complied with orders to disclose his iCloud credentials.

Rao, who had been granted interim protection from arrest on May 29, had been directed to file an undertaking that he would return to India within three days after receiving his passport.

He is now before the apex court challenging the Telangana High Court order that denied him anticipatory bail.

The pressure around the case has intensified since a Hyderabad court issued a proclamation order on May 22, warning that he could be declared a “proclaimed offender” if he failed to appear by June 20.

Such a declaration would allow the court to order attachment of his properties.

The phone-tapping investigation has already led to the arrest of four officials from the SIB, including a suspended DSP, between March and April 2024.

They were accused of erasing intelligence data from electronic devices and carrying out politically motivated surveillance during the previous BRS regime. All four were later granted bail.

According to police, the accused were part of a larger plan that “misused” the agency's resources to keep tabs on citizens across different sectors.

Investigators claim they built unauthorised profiles, monitored individuals without approval and used the information “in a partisan manner to favour a political party at the behest of some persons”.

They are also accused of destroying records to “cause disappearance of evidence”.