Congress demands probe in Gadkari snooping issue

The Congress said Monday it suspected that union minister Nitin Gadkari might have been snooped on and demanded an investigation into the issue.

"The constitution guarantees that one can live his life with privacy, and snooping people is not permitted under law. There are reports that Gadkari was being spied upon, which needs to be investigated," Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said.

Gohil was referring to widespread media reports Sunday that said a listening device was found in Gadkari's house.

Though Gadkari termed the reports "highly speculative", Gohil maintained that there was a lack of clarity over the incident.

"Gadkari said the reports are 'highly speculative'. Why didn't he dismiss the reports as untrue? He should have either said it happened or he should have said it did not happen," the Congress leader told the media here.

He said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy's statement that the bugging was a serious issue and it did take place, leaves no doubt that Gadkari has been snooped upon.

Without targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, he said: "The one who snooped on people in Gujarat is now in Delhi and hence incidents of snooping are now also taking place in Delhi."

Modi's aide Amit Shah, now the Bharatiya Janata Party president, is accused of illegally snooping on a woman architect in Gujarat.

Gohil further alleged that when Modi was the Gujarat chief minister, there were 95,000 reported cases of phone-tapping. He said phone-tapping of journalists was common in Modi's Gujarat.

"When journalists in Gujarat called me, they would use cell phones of either their drivers or relatives. They were afraid their numbers too would get tapped," he claimed.

He said a Gujarat director general of police had said in an affidavit that he was asked to tap the phone of slain BJP leader Haren Pandya.