Rajasthan denies illegal phone tapping

The Congress government in Rajasthan said on Wednesday that “no illegal tapping” of telephone conversations of any legislator was carried out during the political crisis in the State in July last year.

The phones of some individuals were kept on surveillance by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan police under the Indian Telegraph Act as part of an investigation, it stated. Replying to a debate on the issue in the State Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said an inspector in the SOG’s Voice Logger section had reported after tapping some phones that attempts were being made to topple the government through horse-trading. The tapping was done following a tip-off about the supply of explosives and smuggling of illegal weapons.