With the Congress Government going on an offensive against the previous BJP Government in Himachal Pradesh, now the Vigilance Bureau (VB) is gearing up to complete its investigation in the phone tapping case.

The State Forensic Science laboratory (SFSl) has submitted its final report on the phone tapped data stored in the hard disks which the State Vigilance Bureau has sent to verify and ascertain the voice samples and records. The bureau which has almost completed its investigation in the case was awaiting the report from SFSl and the report will subsequently be prepared and submitted to the Government and action against the accused will be initiated.

Sources said that by the start of the month, the bureau will prepare its final report based on the SFSl detailed analyses and submit it to the Government. “It is very likely that names of accused will be included in the anonymous FIR registered with the Vigilance Bureau,” said a senior Government official. He added that phones were indeed tapped en masse and SFSl report substantiates the claims and a charge sheet will be submitted in court.

Officials maintained that some senior police officials will be made accused under whose orders the phones were tapped. Hours before taking oath as Chief Minister of the State, Virbhadra Singh had ordered seizure of hard disks and snooping devices of the technical cell of Vigilance and CID. The devices seized were sent to State Forensic Science laboratory at Junga of Shimla to recover data.

According to Vigilance Bureau, more than 1,000 phones were tapped illegally during the previous BJP Government without any requisite permission taken from the concerned authorities. Bureau had a tough task in ascertaining the records which also included anti-social elements, bureaucrats, politicians, journalists and members of civil society.