The illegal phone tapping issue is now all set to become an election issue in Himachal Pradesh. The former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has alleged that his phone is being tapped while Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh refuting the allegations has said that Dhumal should officially write to him regarding this.
“I have seen the statements issued in the media that former Chief Minister Dhumal has alleged that his phone is being tapped with the help of a latest snooping device purchased by the police recently. I officially contradict the allegation and can say that his phone is not being tapped nor any machinery has been purchased to facilitate snooping,” said Chief Minister.
“The machinery for snooping purchased during BJP tenure is still packed and kept and no such machinery is in use, leave the idea of purchasing new snooping machinery,” said Virbhadra.
He, however, announced that in the mass scale illegal phone tapping case which has taken place during previous BJP Government, the challans will be submitted in the court in next week. “Investigation in the phone tapping case is complete and challan will be submitted in next week,” said Singh adding that Dhumal might have anticipated this move of investigating agency and thus leveled the allegation of snooping.
Refusing to divulge more details, he said, “I am not an investigating agency and who so ever has done wrong will be booked while the innocent will be spared.”
Meanwhile, the Vigilance Department probing the phone tapping case on Sunday questioned the nodal officers of all the leading cellular service providers in the state.“Some clarifications on the telephone tapping were needed so we had summoned the nodal officers of companies providing cellular services in the State,” said a senior police official.
It was only a month back that the State forensic laboratory, Junga (Shimla) had submitted its second report in the telephone tapping. After the forensic had submitted its report last year, the Vigilance sleuths had asked forensic laboratory to have a re-look at the findings. The Vigilance had also asked forensic scientists to examine the pen drive and compact audio disc that were recovered from the cupboards of Police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID).
The previous report revealed that till December 2012 about 1385 phones were illegally tapped. Virbhadra Singh soon after taking over reins of the State in December 2012 had ordered seizures of computers from offices of CID and Vigilance Bureau and investigation of phone tapping case.