Overview

• A bench of Justices B. V. Nagarathna and R. Mahadevan directed T. Prabhakar Rao to reset and provide his iCloud password in the presence of Telangana police forensic experts.
• The court extended Rao’s protection from arrest and ordered him to appear before the investigating officer and cooperate with the inquiry.
• Solicitor General Tushar Mehta alleged device formatting and destruction of evidence and said Rao likely kept backups on about 15 hard disks, citing CFSL findings, which the defense disputed.
• Rao’s counsel said he had forgotten the old iCloud password, offered a supervised reset, and emphasized that extensive prior questioning is video recorded.
• The judges voiced concern over possible data deletion, questioned any role of MPs or MLAs in interrogations, scheduled the next hearing for November 18, and noted the case involves alleged illegal surveillance under the previous BRS regime.