Shimla: Not having enough material to make any headway into investigations of illegal phone tapping by the state vigilance bureau has sought more details for Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and home department.
After being appointed as the investigating agency, the vigilance bureau is said to have been handed a list of phone numbers that were pried upon by polices CID wing.
The phone numbers are said to be that of politicians, bureaucrats, builders, police officers, journalists and other civilians.
To take the investigation to the next level, the investigating agency has sought copies of the recorded telephonic conversations that were retrieved from hard disks of computers seized, just before the Virbhadra Singh Congress government assumed office in December, 2012.
In accordance with The Indian telegraph Act, all legally permissible telephonic conversations that were recorded should have been destroyed within the six months from the time of granting permission.
The vigilance bureau has also sought details of those phone numbers for which tapping permission was granted by the home department.
Sources say that it would take a long time to investigate the case but chief minister Virbhadra Singh has already announced that the probe would be completed in sixty days.
Virbhadra Singh has been holding his predecessor Prem Kumar Dhumal responsible for misuse of government machinery to snoop on him and many others.
Saurabh Chauhan, an independent journalist, has over 15 years of experience in Print and Digital Media. He has extensively written on a variety of issues including women’s rights, environment, crime, governance, finance and politics at Shimla, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Saurabh currently divides his time between Shimla and his native place in Kotgarh (Shimla Hills).
