Asking staff to fill out a proforma is not snooping: Jaitley

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that snooping is keeping a watch on someone silently, and added that visiting someone's office in an official capacity to ask staff to fill out a proforma did not constitute snooping.

"Snooping is keeping a watch on someone silently, visiting someone's office and asking staff to fill out per forma is not snooping," Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha.

"Delhi Police special branch conducts activity of profiling of all VIPs and public figures, nothing related to snooping," he added.

"This practice started during Cong Govt in 1997, profiling of Cong president Sonia Gandhi was done in 1998, October 2004, 2010 during UPA's rule," he added.

Delhi Police personnel visited Rahul Gandhi's residence last week and also sought details about his height and colour of eyes and hair.

A team, led by Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Jatin Narwal, visited Gandhi's Tughlak Lane residence to enquire about the sequence of events.

The team also checked the pictures of the policemen who had visited Rahul's residence a couple of days ago and enquired about the colour of Congress leader's eyes and hairs.

The Delhi Police on Saturday said it was a routine security enquiry and that there was no malafide intention behind it.