Delhi police visit Rahul's house, Cong alleges political espionage

A Delhi police team on Saturday visited the residence of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to enquire about an incident in which some policemen had sought details of his appearance in a case of alleged profiling.

A team, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal, visited Gandhi's Tughlak Lane residence to enquire about the incident and the sequence of events. The team also checked the pictures of the policemen who had visited Rahul Gandhi's residence a couple of days ago and enquired about the colour of the colour of Congress leader's eyes and hairs.

The police team will give a report in this regard to Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that a Delhi Police assistant sub inspector identified by him as Shamsher Singh had enquired about the colours of Rahul's hairs, eyes, age, height, the shoes he uses and his father's name and the places he visits.

Singhvi said the Delhi policeman ASI was "found snooping" and making "unnecessary and weird" enquiries.

The policeman was stopped and accosted by the staff of the Special Protection Group that guards Rahul, at the residence of the Congress vice president, Singhvi said. The incident gave ammo to Singhvi to launch a sharp attack on the government saying it is a case of "political espionage and snooping" on rivals.

In a veiled reference to the snooping of a young woman in Gujarat during the tenure of Narendra Modi as chief minister, Singhvi, without naming Modi, said "espionage and surveillance" of political rivals may be a Gujarat model but not the Indian model. "The track record shows this kind of espionage was perfected in Gujarat for political opponents," he said.

Senior Congress leader P C Chacko termed it as a "breach of privacy and highly unacceptable”. "It is intruding into the privacy of the citizen by Delhi police without any valid purpose and is highly unacceptable," he said.

"Who has done this and under whose instructions, we would like to know. If it is true, then senior officials should explain who authorised them to come. Rahul Gandhiji is an MP, all the details are available on Parliament's website and there is nothing which is secret about him," he said.

"Every individual has the right to his privacy. They have now started intruding into the private lives of the citizens also....This is highly objectionable," he added.