Congress seeks clarification on snooping allegations against Amit Shah

The Congress party on Sunday expressed shock over the allegations that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah misused his powers and police machinery to monitor the movement of a young woman in 2009.

"We demand an independent enquiry into the incident by a retired Supreme Court judge," said Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan while addressing a press conference here.

"The most important question about the alleged snooping by Amit Shah is about its funding. We want to know from where Amit Shah got the money to spy on a Bangalore woman," she added.

Natarajan further questioned the safety of women and asked whether it's possible for them to walk as free citizens.

"Are the women of this country safe, youth of this country safe?" she asked.

On Friday, two websites, played what they said were taped telephone conversations between Shah when he was Gujarat's minister of state for home and a senior police officer, GL Singhal.

On the tapes, a man, allegedly Amit Shah tells another, allegedly Singhal, to monitor the movements of the woman in Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

The voice purported to be that of Shah says the surveillance is being done at the behest of "Saheb" or master. The websites claim that these are recordings made by Singhal, which he submitted to the Central Bureau of Investigation while being questioned in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case.

Singhal was arrested by the CBI in February this year in connection with the 2004 Ishrat Jahan fake encounter and was recently released on bail. He was then posted as SP, ATS in Gujarat police.