Getting call records from cellular companies to soon get tougher

Obtaining call detail records (CDR) from mobile service providers is going to get tougher. The Delhi Police have tightened norms for such requests after it emerged that private detectives managed to get the call details of BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

Obtaining call detail records (CDR) from mobile service providers is going to get tougher. The Delhi Police have tightened norms for such requests after it emerged that private detectives managed to get the call details of BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

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“From now, every request for CDRs will be approved by the officer concerned in writing. Before sending the request to the service provider, the ownership of the number will also be established,” said Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

A register will be maintained to keep the time of getting the request, when it was forwarded to the service provider and when the CDR was received, he said. The officers have also been told to destroy these call records at the earliest.
After the 2006 Amar Singh phone-tapping controversy, the Delhi Police had made systematic changes in the way the phones were intercepted and call details sought.

But it seems that despite an almost foolproof system, human lapses resulted in the latest episode involving Jaitley.
During the probe into the Singh case, it emerged that one Bhupendra and a private detective had forged a sanction letter with the help of a former employee of a service provider to intercept a phone installed at Singh’s residence.
As per the instructions in the forged sanction letter, the service provider gave a parallel line of the phone on a mobile phone and that’s how his calls were recorded.

After the incident, the police adopted a system that made such illegal interception almost impossible. “Guidelines were issued that all phone interception requests to the service provider will be routed through joint/special commissioner (special cell). No police officer other than them can send a direct request for interception,” said Karnal Singh, who was instrumental in making these guidelines in 2006.

He is now a special director in the Enforcement Directorate.

In case of the CDRs, the guidelines stated that a joint or special commissioner (special cell) will authorise a few officers in every police unit, who can send requests to service providers for call details of a mobile number from their official emails. All other officers were barred from sending requests to service providers.