Govt collecting information on "snooping" issue: Shinde

Amidst the ongoing controversy over "snooping" of a woman by Gujarat Police, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today indicated security agencies were collecting information on the whole issue and if required a probe could be ordered.

"We are collecting information on this and after that we will look into the matter," he told reporters here.

He was replying to a question on whether the Home Ministry was contemplating ordering any probe into the "snooping" of the woman in Gujarat allegedly at the behest of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah.

Shinde, however, made it clear that the Home Ministry has not received any representation from anyone, including National Women Commission, seeking a probe into the issue.

"We have not received any letter yet," he said.

Two news portals, Cobrapost and Gulail, had claimed on November 15 that Amit Shah had ordered illegal surveillance of a woman in Gujarat at the behest of one "saheb".

They had released taped conversation between Shah and IPS officer G L Singhal to support their claim but said its authenticity of the tape could not be confirmed.

Yesterday, the father of the woman has told the NCW that his daughter does not want any probe into the issue as there was no encroachment of her privacy.

"It is an earnest wish of my daughter that no further probe (in snooping issue) is necessary as being politically demanded," he had said in a letter to NCW and Gujarat State Commission for Women.