‘Investigate officers who tapped phone’

BENGALURU: “The investigation in the controversial audio clip of a purported conversation between the incumbent City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao and a person named Faraz, that surfaced on Thursday should fix responsibility on officers, who are behind the tapping of phones and the irresponsible leakage of the captured conversation,” senior IPS officers on condition of anonymity told The New Indian Express.
The audio clip, the authenticity of which remains to be verified, has sent shock waves among the state bureaucracy with many of them worried if their phones were also wired for surveillance for reasons best known.

“It is a very serious issue and needs to be investigated well. Who authorised the tapping of the phones and in whose possession was the audio file kept? How was it leaked and by whom? It is a grave concern of national security if this is the way phones are being tapped and confidential information is being leaked out,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

Former police commissioner Alok Kumar said that Faraz’s phone was being tapped in a Ponzi scheme and the purported conversation fell under the radar of the investigating agency. “The inspector and assistant commissioner of police, who were then investigating the case had requested for tapping of Faraz’s phone in the Ponzi scheme case and the then commissioner had given his approval,” Kumar told TNIE. He however, refused to give any further details of Faraz and the Ponzi scheme.    

“Both the Central and the state governments have a right to tap phones under Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraphic Act, 1885. There has to be a record of request for the phone tapping with the Home Department because it involves a well laid process. Tapping of phones cannot be done without layers of official authorisation and scrutiny, which at the state level is done by a high power committee headed by the Chief Secretary with Home and Law secretaries as its members. The agency seeking tapping of phones has to fill an authorisation slip before placing a phone under surveillance. The request and reasons for phone tapping should be explained and justified in detail for an ongoing investigation. which may have far reaching Once the permission for tapping an individual’s phone is given, the audio file of the tapped conversation becomes the state custody.