Conduct Snoopgate inquiry: Congress MPs to Shinde

Raising the pitch for an independent inquiry into Gujarat ministers and officials stalking a young woman, seven Congress MPs on Monday asked home minister Sushilkumar Shinde to immediately appoint a full-fledged inquiry.

Raising the pitch for an independent inquiry into Gujarat ministers and officials stalking a young woman, seven Congress MPs on Monday asked home minister Sushilkumar Shinde to immediately appoint a full-fledged inquiry.

In a letter to Shinde, the MPs including former union minister Gurudas Kamat asked the government to appoint an inquiry commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to ascertain “whether and how constitutional governance had been breached in this case”.

The letter comes days after Shinde said the government was carefully examining complaints forwarded by Rashtrapati Bhawan as well as received directly by the home ministry.

On Monday, the Congress MPs pointed to media reports indicating that the former Gujarat home minister misused his powers and the police machinery to conduct illegal surveillance of a young woman in 2009.

It called the systematic phone tapping and spying on private citizens and government officials, alleged to have been carried out, a “flagrant violation of their fundamental rights and the law”. The reports point to a breakdown of constitutional machinery and rule of law in Gujarat of the most serious nature that jeopardises the well-being and liberty of all citizens. htc