Tapping ban for security bodies

As security agencies try to track down off-the-air phone tapping equipment in private hands, the government has told police and intelligence agencies to pack up their devices too.

As security agencies try to track down off-the-air phone tapping equipment in private hands, the government has told police and intelligence agencies to pack up their devices too.

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Security agencies have identified about 2,000 cases of the equipment — capable of intercepting any mobile call made or received within a certain radius of its location — that have been imported.

The Intelligence Bureau —set out to check the antecedents of buyers — has almost completed its survey and will submit its report to the home ministry.

The government had restricted private sector from importing the passive interception device after a controversy over its alleged misuse by security agencies. But the leakage of the Radia tapes brought the focus back on the technology that was beyond the reach of law.