'Govt tapping phones of Team Anna members'

With several of its members fending off controversies over the last few weeks, Anna Hazare’s team on Saturday kicked up a new one: it said the government was tapping the phones of all its members. HT reports.Anna to quit blogging | Sound bytes

With several of its members fending off controversies over the last few weeks, Anna Hazare’s team on Saturday kicked up a new one: it said the government was tapping the phones of all its members.



"The phones of all Team Anna members have been tapped. We always had this hunch but no evidence. Some incidents in the past few days have confirmed our suspicion," said member Arvind Kejriwal. He first raised this issue at the core committee meeting in September.



On Saturday, he cited a specific instance. "On Thursday, one of Anna’s assistants read out his note to me, which said Anna would like to go to Rajghat when he comes to Delhi. He wanted this not to be disclosed to anyone since he wanted to sit alone in peace," Kejriwal said.

“Within 15 minutes of this conversation, our office got a call from the police asking us to give details of Anna’s visit to Rajghat. We were shocked,” he said.

The Delhi Police declined to comment.

Pointing that under law, the phones of only those who pose a threat to national security can be tapped, Kejriwal asked: “Is Anna and his team a threat to national security? Corrupt people are the real threat. Interestingly, they are the ones with the power to give permission to tap phones.”