The scandal over the alleged tapping of phones of Kerala’s Oommen Chandy Government’s critics by the Home Department got murkier on Thursday with G Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of majority community outfit NSS, claiming that even the phone of Ramesh Chennithala, president of the State Congress, the ruling party, was being tapped by the police.
“Chennithala himself had told me once that (Home Minister) Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan had been tapping his phone,” Sukumaran Nair told newsmen at the NSS headquarters in Perunna, Kottayam. Nair had last week said that the State police had been tapping his phone in the context of his outfit’s criticisms against the Government and the Congress.
Nair’s allegation is sure to be used by the Congress’s ‘I’ group led by Chennithala as a weapon against Chief Minister Chandy, leader of the party’s ‘A’ group, particularly in the context of the standoff between the two factions over the issue of inducting the State party chief into the Cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister.
What is even more embarrassing to the Congress is that Chennithala himself will now be required to offer a clarification on Nair’s “disclosure” (as a Chennithala aide put it). If he chooses to confirm Nair’s charge it would lead to further escalation in the already intense Congress group war and it would amount to terming Nair a liar if he decides to deny it.
An investigation by Inspector General of Police (Central Zone) K Padmakumar upon instructions from the Home Minister has concluded that Sukumaran Nair’s phone had never been tapped by the Police Department. But Nair said that this investigation was not reliable and that what he wanted was a scientific probe. “You’ll then know who all would get caught,” he said.
“What the police are saying and what Thiruvanchoor had said is that my phone had not been tapped officially. My complaint was about the unofficial phone-tapping. There is no need to of an investigation to confirm or deny charges of official tapping,” Nair said.