Rao has been subject of allegations on plagiarism. Rao and Saluru Baba Krupanidhi at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, with their students Basant Chitara and L. S. Panchakarla, published a paper "Infrared photodetectors based on reduced graphene oxide and graphene nanoribbons" in the journal "Advanced Materials" in 2011. After publication the journal editors found sentences copied verbatim in the introduction and methodology from a paper published in "Applied Physics Letters" in 2010. According to "Nature" report, it was Basant Chitara, a PhD student at IISc, who wrote the text. An apology was issued by the authors later in the same journal. Rao said that he did read the manuscript and that it was an oversight on his part as he focused mainly on the results and discussion.