BENGALURU: Dharwad West BJP MLA Arvind Bellad, who has been identified with a group of BJP dissidents frequenting New Delhi with complaints against Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, on Thursday made a sensational allegation that his phone was being tapped, and followed it up with complaints to Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and DGP Praveen Sood, requesting an investigation.
Bellad said that a certain undertrial, Yuvraj Swamy, had called him from prison. He said he got a missed call, and when he called back and realised it was Yuvraj Swamy who wanted to discuss political developments, he cut the call. The MLA suspects this was an attempt to fix him. He said his father was a 5-term legislator and he himself had a clean record, and this was an attempt to sully his image.
Interestingly, former police officer Shankar Bidari had tweeted ominously on June 13, “SB 235/2021 tapping of Telephones and mobiles of Law Abiding citizens and religious heads amounts to gross misuse of power. Such governments and officers indulging in such activities will be in serious trouble.’’ When TNIE contacted Bidari on Sunday, he cryptically stated, “You will not understand this tweet. But the one who needs to understand this message, will. There is a certain number 234 which is significant.’’ On Thursday too, Bidari refused to elaborate.
CM Yediyurappa’s Political Secretary MP Renukacharya downplayed the issue, saying, “Our CM will not stoop to such levels’’, while BJP General Secretary Ravi Kumar dismissed Bellad as just a legislator. “Where is the question of tapping his phone? The party will speak to him.” Opposition leaders were quick to seek a probe. KPCC president DK Shivakumar told TNIE, “Since they had referred the phone-tapping allegations against the coalition government to the CBI, they should refer this too to the CBI.’’ Former CM H D Kumaraswamy echoed Shivakumar, saying the matter should be referred to the CBI.
“Now it is their own party legislator who is making this allegation. I have heard this government has been tapping phones of industrialists and politicians. Tax sleuths are tapping phones of big industrialists and moneyed politicians all over the country with two purposes -- to collect information and use it to put them in trouble. There is no privacy left. What Bellad has said is true.’’ Opposition leader Siddaramaiah wanted the matter to be investigated by a retired HC judge. There is a possibility that phones of opposition leaders too are being tapped, he said.