Snooping row: Modi wanted to spy on woman in Bangalore

The snooping of a woman allegedly at the behest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was not confined to Gujarat but extended to Karnataka as well, according to an investigative portal, contradicting the claims of the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

The portal, gulail.com, has released a set of fresh 39 tapes, which contained purported conversation between two senior Gujarat police officials, G L Singhal and A K Sharma, about the spying on the woman.

The website, which along with another portal cobrapost.com had first exposed the matter, said the Gujarat police had in 2009 contacted its Karnataka counterpart during the chief ministership of B S Yedyurrapa for intercepting the telephone of the woman in Bangalore.

The Karnataka government, however, turned down the request, saying due procedures were not followed and that "the order had been signed by a junior officer who was not even authorised to issue phone-tapping instructions".

According to the claims by the websites, the snooping was being undertaken at the behest of 'saheb', an apparent reference to Modi. In some of the tapes, the then state Home Minister and Modi's close aide Amit Shah is purportedly heard referring to 'saheb' repeatedly.

"The Gujarat police not only circumvented the process for tapping of phones, some junior officers of the state home department directly ordered the telecom companies to carry out illegal surveillance," the website has claimed.

It said the move was in clear violation of Indian Telegraph Rule 419 (A) and the Gujarat government’s own notification (dated 29th March 1997), which clearly state that a phone can be tapped only with the written authorisation of the Union home secretary or state home secretary.

The new tapes contradict the claims made by the Gujarat government that the woman was merely being “provided security” during her visits to Gujarat at the request of her father.