NCW to send notice to Gujarat on snooping row

The National Commission for Women (NCW) has said that it will send a show cause notice to the Gujarat Government seeking an explanation on the alleged illegal snooping ordered by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on a Bangalore-based woman.

The commission said it has taken suo motu notice of reports in the media on allegations of illegal surveillance.

News portals Cobrapost and Gulail had released a report and made public tapes on November 15, alleging that Modi's close aide Amit Shah had directed Gujarat Police to monitor the movements of a young woman and a senior IAS officer in 2009 when he was Gujarat's home minister.

The websites alleged that three key wings of the Gujarat Police were involved in this snooping effort.

"We will send a notice to the Gujarat government on Wednesday, asking them to explain whether they followed due process before orders were given to put a young woman under surveillance," media quoted NCW member Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar, as saying.

Prabhavalkar told the Hindustan Times in an interview that the Gujarat Government would also be asked to seek an explanation from Shah if his order resulted in misuse of government machinery for the purpose of snooping.

Meanwhile, the father of the young woman in the midst of the snooping row has requested for privacy.

"My daughter is an architect and an educated person. She is married and deeply perturbed by the intrusion upon her personal life and privacy. To ensure her anonymity, she has requested me to write this letter to the honourable NCW," he said.

The heat from the snooping scandal intensified on Tuesday with suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma requesting the Supreme Court to take note of it.

Sharma, a 1984 batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer is facing five criminal cases in connection with alleged irregularities in the allotment of land to private firms in Kutch in 2008. He last served as Bhavnagar Municipal commissioner.

He has been demanding a CBI probe into all cases against him, claiming that he was being targeted by the Modi government.