M A I N   N E W S

Amar Singh moves SC in phone tapping case
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 9
Blaming Congress President Sonia Gandhi directly for the alleged tapping of the telephones of Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by the latter for a judicial probe into the matter and prosecution of those found guilty.

Terming the tapping of their phones of Reliance Infocomm network as violative of the Indian Telegraph Act and the 1997 guidelines laid down by the apex court in the People’s Union of Civil Liberties case, Mr Amar Singh has named the Congress President, the Union Government, the Delhi Police Commissioner, its Additional Commissioner (Crime), the Delhi Government and the service provider as respondents.

The petition, according to his counsel P.H. Parek, was filed in the Supreme Court Registry on Saturday and was likely to come up for hearing this week.

From the Central Government, Mr Amar Singh named the Telecom Ministry and the Ministry of Home Affairs as respondents separately, alleging that the phones of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son Akhilesh Yadav and his own had been tapped for quite some time on the orders purportedly issued by Delhi ACP (Crime) Ranjit Narayan.

Mr Amar Singh said the main reason for tapping of his phone and those of his party leader Mulayam Singh and his son was to “cause damage to their image and malign, embarrass and discredit the party”.

He enclosed the two letters dated October 22 and November 9 last, purportedly written by Mr Naryayan and the Delhi Home Department to Reliance Infocomm, ordering he monitoring of his cell number 01139565414.

While the letter of the ACP stated that “interception of the mentioned mobile number is urgently required for the safety of the general public at large and in the interests of the nation”, that of the Delhi Home Department said “cell number 01139565414 be intercepted and disclosed to the Government of NCT in order to prevent the commission of any offence”, the petition said, adding that personal telephones of Mr Mulayam Singh and Mr Akhilesh Yadav were also being tapped.

Narrating the event that led to the disclosure of the episode, he said in December, some persons, claiming to be Intelligence Bureau officials, came at his 27, Lodhi Estate, residence and sought an appointment with him. They had informed him that his cell was being tapped, apart from those of Mr Mulayam Singh and Mr Akhilesh Yadav.

According to the petition, the two purported letters had clearly instructed the Reliance Infocomm that “all the incoming and outgoing calls of the mentioned number may be diverted with immediate effect”.

Relying heavily on the apex court’s 1997 guidelines, Mr Amar Singh said “no such situation as stated in the court verdict had arisen and there was no justification for tapping of the telephones of the applicant”.

BJP for all-party meeting on phone tapping
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 9
Extending support to Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh, who moved the Supreme Court, seeking a judicial probe in the phone-tapping issue, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh today asked the government to call an all-party meeting to discuss the issue.

BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the BJP felt that tapping of phones of various opposition leaders was a serious matter and the government must call an all-party-meeting to discuss the issue.

He said phones of senior BJP leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, were being tapped after findings of the Volcker Committee were made public.

He said first it was Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh who complained about phone tapping and then Telugu Desam Party leader and former Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also alleged that his phone was being tapped, he added.

“Now the BJP has learnt that phones of our leaders, including that of Mr Advani, were being tapped, particularly during the Volcker controversy,” Mr Javadekar said.

Court rejects bail plea of phone-tapping accused
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 9
A Delhi court today dismissed the bail application of a person accused in the phone tapping of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kanwaljit Arora rejected the bail application of Anurag, who owned a detective agency, after hearing an hour-long argument from both sides.

Anurag was arrested by the Delhi police on January 6 in the phone-tapping case and was later produced before Duty Magistrate Kanwaljit Arora at the Tis Hazari courts, who remanded him in police custody till January 9.

Anurag was allegedly working jointly with Bhupendra, owner of another detective agency, who was also arrested on December 30.

Mann, Ravi Inder also complain of phone tapping
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 9
Punjab has also come into the loop of the telephone tapping controversy. The President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, has complained to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that his landline telephone and cellphone were regularly tapped by the police. In fact, he has gone a step ahead. He has alleged that he was kept under surveillance by the police. Mr Mann has written to the Prime Minister in this regard.

Mr Ravi Inder Singh, former Punjab Speaker, has stated that during the tenure of the previous Parkash Singh Badal government, his telephone used to be tapped by the intelligence agencies in Punjab. He said he had raised this issue at that time. “As a good number of Akali MLAs had started coming to my residence here and had also started talking to me on the phone regarding the poor performance of the Badal government, the intelligence agencies had started tapping my phones”, said Mr Ravi Inder Singh.

During the Badal government, Mr Ravi Inder Singh, who was then the Akali MLA from Morinda, had become a centre of power in the Shiromani Akali Dal. Mr Ravi Inder Singh said that he had definite information that his telephones were being tapped. “ Not of only me, but telephones of the MLAs who were supporting me at that time also used to be tapped”, he added.

He said that intelligence agencies had the equipment to tap telephones.

Shadowing of politicians by intelligence sleuths had become a common feature. “It was a misuse of power by those capture power”, he added.

Mr Mann in the letter to the Prime Minister said that when he was a Member of Parliament, he had suggested in Parliament that all intelligence agencies, their work and secret service funds, which were not audited, should be brought under the scanner of the Parliamentary Committee just as in the USA, where all intelligence gathering outfits came within the purview of the Senate and Congress Committee.

He said when he raised this point the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power at the Centre. The NDA government at that time thought that if tapping was stopped, it would limit its power. Now people who were in power then and were in the Opposition at present complained about snooping.

Mr Mann urged the Prime Minister that in the interests of a vibrant democracy and for the sake of transparency and accountability, it was of the utmost importance that “you set up a system of checks and balances so that no government , present or future, violated the practices of a sound democracy and adheres to constitutional norms.”

Raising another important issue, Mr Mann said that he solemnised the marriage of his younger daughter at his residence on December 18. It was a private affair and only a few guests known to the family personally were invited to the wedding. “That day I was surprised when a posse of IB and the intelligence agency of the Punjab Police’s undercover personnel descended upon our residence, mingled with my family and marriage party members and partook of the meal and disappeared with the ‘doli’.

“Could you kindly let me know why the Government of India under you and the Congress-run Punjab Government made a trespass into my residence, invaded my privacy and ate as uninvited guests? Mr Mann asked the Prime Minister.