Illegal phone tapping: DGP to head committee, report in three months

The Maharashtra government on Friday formed a three-member committee headed by director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey to probe the allegations of tapping of phones of elected representatives during the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government.

Ashutosh Dumbre, commissioner, state intelligence department (SID), and Sunil Kolhe, additional commissioner of police, special branch, are the other members of the committee. The panel will check if the phones were tapped illegally for political motives and will fix the responsibility on those involved in it. The committee has been asked to submit its report in three months.

“The committee has been asked to investigate all phone tapping cases conducted in the past five years between 2015 and 2019. It will examine if the phones of elected representatives were tapped for ulterior political motives and by illegal means. It will also fix responsibility of those found involved in it,” stated an order issued by the state home department on Friday.

The decision came two days after state home minister Dilip Walse-Patil announced a high-level probe while speaking in the Maharashtra Assembly. The ruling legislators raised the issue in the Assembly on Tuesday after Nana Patole, state Congress chief and legislator, informed that his phone was tapped during the Fadnavis government. He said that this was done with other elected representatives as well. “In 2016-17, my phone was tapped by the previous government by giving a dummy name — Amjad Khan. It was done on the grounds of narcotics smuggling. Who gave the order to tap my phone needs to be investigated,” Patole said, in the Assembly on Tuesday. “Phones of other public representatives were also tapped. Such acts are alarming for all. It is an attempt to destroy the public life of public representatives. Democracy is in danger…If legislators are being threatened in the Assembly, they will face the same fate which Anil Deshmukh and Chhagan Bhujbal are facing,” he added.

“If the phones are being tapped using a dummy name, the matter needs to be investigated. In my view, it is a very serious issue and I declare a high-level probe in the matter. All those guilty will face strict action,” Walse-Patil said in response to the demand for an investigation in the Assembly.

On Friday, deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar said he has found substance in the complaints made by Patole.

“In a democracy, tapping phones of elected representatives using different names is not acceptable. This also doesn’t fit in the existing law, which says tapping can be done for cases related to law and order, smuggling of narcotics, when internal security of the country can come in danger or to maintain communal harmony. If it is being done for political reasons and by violating the law, it is extremely wrong,” Pawar told reporters.

In response, former finance minister and senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar downplayed the move. He said there was no need to form a high-level committee and the government could have got the information by examining the relevant documents. “I am surprised that they have constituted a DG level committee for this as the information can be obtained only by examining the relevant documents. A phone of any person can be tapped only with prior permission from the additional chief secretary of the home department. The committee should have been formed in case of involvement of a senior official in such an act. If allegations are true then the officers found guilty should be punished,” Mungatiwar told HT.