The snooping row surrounding Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley appears set to explode into a bigger controversy after the main conspirator reportedly claimed that attempts were made to access the call detail records of over 60 persons, including that of top BJP leaders.
As per reports, private detective Anurag Singh attempted to extract CDRs of over 60 persons including Nitin Gadkari, Vijay Goyal, Lalit Modi, and Sudhanshu Mittal.
Mittal, while confirming that he was in touch with Anurag Singh, told a news channel, "We have been victimised. Our CDRs have been accessed."
Anurag Singh was remanded in judicial custody by a Delhi court on Feb 26. He was earlier accused of tapping the phone of former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in 2005.
The other three accused -- constable Arvind Dabas, Neeraj and Nitish -- are also in judicial custody.
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Jaitley not the only BJP leader victim of call snooping
The BJP has accused the government of "spying on the Opposition" and demanded an apology. Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed uproar over the issue last week and had to be adjourned.
Terming it as a serious matter, BJP demanded an answer from Shinde as to who ordered this unauthorised surveillance. "This is a government of spies like James Bond and when any government functions in a mafia style then the people of this country does not forgive it. This is a serious crime," said BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
However, Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat on Friday termed the attempt to tap phones of BJP leaders as an internal operation of the BJP.
"According to information this phone tapping of BJP leaders is their internal operation. A part of their personal tussle," Harish Rawat said.
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Jaitley not the only BJP leader victim of call snooping
Making a statement in the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Friday that BJP leader Arun Jaitley's phone was not tapped, only the call details of his phone was accessed.
Shinde said that Delhi Police constable Arvind Dabas had illegally accessed the email id of ACP operations and misused it to send requests to telecom operators seeking call detail records of many persons including several leaders.
Dabas later sold them to one Neeraj, resident of Shalimar Garden, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, for Rs 1500 each.
The investigations are ongoing, Shinde added.
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