CBI top brass in Bengaluru to monitor phone-tap probe

Call data for over a year collected; Electronic items seized from support centre
CBI top brass in Bengaluru to monitor phone-tap probe

BENGALURU: CBI sleuths intensified the probe into the illegal phone-tapping case and reportedly collected call data information. The team on Friday visited the technical cell located in Adugodi and collected the data of calls intercepted there. Understanding the complexity and sensitivity of the case, CBI Joint Commissioner Dr GK Goswamy himself is in the city, and is said to be monitoring the case.

“The calls intercepted between August 1, 2018, and August 18, 2019, were collected by the CBI. The data will later be verified to find out which was legally intercepted and which ones were done without the required permission,” said an official source.

Meanwhile, electronic items, computers and other connected devices were seized from the technical support centre. A notice was served to all service providers in the city to provide them with a list of requests made by police officers to provide logistics to intercept calls.

“CBI officials have sent a notice to us, seeking details of the permissions sought by police from August 1, 2018, till recently. We will soon be sending the data,” an official from one of the service providers said.
Meanwhile, the officer in charge of the technical support centre and officer in charge of CCB have been questioned. Sources said they confessed to have intercepted some calls, based on instructions by their senior officers.

“Notices asking former commissioner Alok Kumar and his predecessor T Suneel Kumar and the present commissioner, Bhaskar Rao, to appear before them for questioning, were sent by the CBI,” said Bengaluru police sources.

The CBI will also reportedly question Joint Commissioner Sandeep Patil, who was heading the committee formed to investigate the audio file which contained the purported conversation between the incumbent police commissioner Bhaskar Rao and a power broker, Faraz.

CBI officials have allegedly found that the initial investigation was only eyewash and the report didn’t contain any names of the officers, in spite of police inspectors in charge of technical cell revealing the names of senior officers and politicians involved?

The CBI has obtained reports and records of phone-tapping, which are required to be approved by the committee in which the home secretary is also a member, and deliberations of those meetings, which will throw light on whose phones were tapped, for what reason were they tapped and for what duration.
The CBI will also question officials to whose numbers the calls were diverted.

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