Mumbai: The Maha Vikas Aghadi government is yet to issue a notification on the inquiry into phone tapping of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress leaders by the BJP-led government during the assembly elections last year.
This, even though 10 days have elapsed since Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced the formation of a two-member probe committee headed by additional chief secretary Shrikant Singh. It is reliably learnt that senior officers from the Home and the Revenue departments have swung into action to scuttle such a probe.
A Home department officer told FPJ: “It is true that some senior officers have come together to oppose the probe and they are lobbying against it with higher-ups in the state administration. They fear that a probe will reveal the nexus between the key officers and their associates in securing the orders to conduct phone tapping.”
He informed that a contract was allegedly awarded to Indian and foreign companies which were linked to associates and relatives of a few senior officers. These officers fear that their links will get exposed if an inquiry is instituted.
However, the officer said that Deshmukh has not given up but is actively pursuing the matter with the Chief Minister's Office for an early release of the government notification, so that an inquiry can be launched without further delay.
As reported by the FPJ, Deshmukh, in his statement, had said the inquiry would be conducted within six weeks by a two-member committee comprising Shrikant Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Home department, and Amitesh Kumar, IPS (Joint Commissioner of Intelligence); the committee is at liberty to induct officers and technical experts, as per requirement.
The minister had further said that the inquiry should cover not only the legal documentation but also take the support of technical experts to decipher if unofficial surveillance has been carried out by tracing the footprint in the servers of various telecom companies through physical verification and visits.
Deshmukh alleged that he was taking the decision to form a committee after receiving multiple complaints of “misuse of phone tapping by the previous government”.
The NCP had cried foul over phone tapping of party chief Sharad Pawar during assembly elections. The party had further claimed that phone tapping reportedly persisted even after the elections were over and while hectic parleys were on between the NCP, the Shiv Sena and the Congress on government formation.
Incidentally, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, who was fiercely critical of the BJP in the days and weeks following last year's assembly elections, had claimed that a senior BJP leader had told him his phone calls and messages were, in fact, being monitored. Raut also said he had nothing to hide and that he “welcomed” anybody who wanted to listen to his conversations.
Furthermore, veteran BJP leader and former revenue minister Eknath Khadse has welcomed the probe into allegations of phone tapping during the erstwhile BJP-led government.
“That my phone was among the phones tapped, I read it in newspapers....I welcome the probe. I do not think that my phone would have been tapped...but if it was, then...,” he had told the reporters last week.
