‘I don’t do anything secretly’, says Sanjay Raut after phone-tapping reports

Sanjay Raut’s tweet comes a day after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced a probe into reports that state security agencies had intercepted phones of non-BJP leaders.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, one of the lead architects of Maharashtra’s unseemly coalition with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, on Friday claimed that a senior BJP minister in the Devendra Fadnavis had sounded him out that his phone also was being tapped.

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that using government machinery to snoop on political opponents was “uncalled for”. (PTI Photo)

Sanjay Raut’s tweet comes a day after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced a probe into reports that state security agencies had intercepted phones of non-BJP leaders including Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Raut during last year’s state elections and the formation of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

In a tweet on Friday, Raut said, “Your phone is being tapped. This was told to me by a senior BJP minister earlier. I told him whoever wishes to listen to my conversations is free to do so. I am a disciple of Balasaheb Thackeray ji, I don’t do anything secretly. Listen to my conversation.”

Deshmukh, without naming the previous government, said that using government machinery to snoop on political opponents was “uncalled for”. He added that the government has begun a probe into this matter and a report is expected to come in soon.

“[Congress leader] Digvijayji [Singh] had said that the phones of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena leaders were tapped by the government during elections and even during the formation of the three-party government. Phone calls of Sharad Pawarsaheb and Sanjay Rautji too were being tapped. Using government machinery for such activities is uncalled for. We have begun the investigation and expect to have the report soon,” Deshmukh told reporters on Thursday.