CHANDIGARH: The ghost of phone tapping is haunting the Punjab Government again after the ruling Congress MLA, Samana Rajinder Singh accused the Punjab Police of tapping his phone on Tuesday in Patiala
The opposition parties which had alleged that the phones of political leaders are being tapped have hit out at the government yet again.
The issue came to light when Congress MLA Singh raised this matter at a district grievance redressal committee meeting. He alleged that a CIA Inspector posted for Samana had tapped his and his personal assistant’s phone calls.
"He even showed me the call recordings he made after a confrontation with him over some issue," said Singh.
Demanding a probe, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) President Sunil Jakhar said that phone tapping of elected representatives is a serious matter.
Lapping on the issue, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Aman Arora dubbed phone tapping as a serious issue and demanded a probe by a sitting judge of Punjab and Haryana High court into the matter. While Shiromani Akali Dal termed it as "breach of privilege".
Earlier, a telephonic conversation between State Food and Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu with a Deputy Superintendent of Police and a conversation of Congress MLA from Fazilka Davinder Ghaubaya’s with a woman police officer had gone public.
It is suspected that the Israeli spyware Pegasus which is used to hack WhatsApp worldwide is being used by the state police to target the 'selected ones'.
Sources claimed that a few months ago a few officials of the state police had alerted their friends of using WhatsApp after they learnt that an Israeli software is in possession of the state intelligence wing and is being used to track WhatsApp calls and messages.
Under the impression that WhatsApp calls and messages are encrypted the officers and politicians were mostly using WhatsApp for calling. Allegedly this software was bought through the secret fund so that no one could be held responsible for it and no figures could be pointed out.
While many legislators demanded that the matter should be taken up in the coming session of the state assembly as there could be more such cases.