Snooping row: NCW asks Gujarat govt to probe allegations

National Commission for Women today asked the Gujarat Government to probe the alleged snooping of a woman following instructions by former home minister of the state Amit Shah.
The NCW directive to the Gujarat Chief secretary came even as the father of the woman requested the Commission to stop any investigation into the matter claiming there was no violation of privacy rights.
"We have written to the Gujarat Chief secretary with specifically looking into the violation of constitutional rights of privacy, misuse of state/police machinery for flagrant violation of Indian Telegraph Act which protects of the liberty of citizen was followed or not," member of NCW, Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar told PTI.

The father of the girl, who was allegedly snooped, has written to the Commission demanding that the probe be stopped claiming no privacy rights was violated.
Prabhavalkar said that the commission received the letter today.
"The letter was delivered to a security guard by an anonymous person last night who handed it over to us today. In the letter, the father has demanded that there was no need for any probe as there was no violation of privacy rights and this entire episode is being used for serving political ends," she said.

In the letter, the father said that his daughter is an architect and married and does not want to be involved in any controversy. The father also said the woman needed protection.

However, Prabhavalkar said that the father should come to the forefront and clarify the matter.
"The complaints are generally made personally, registered post, online or through fax, which are received by our staff. Here someone just gave the letter to a security guard, to be delivered to us which is not the procedure," she said, adding that the letter contains the name of the father and his signature.
She, however, said that they are writing to the father of the girl to confirm if he had written the letter to the Commission and provide them with detailed particulars of the matter.

"If they are correct, they should come to the forefront and clarify the thing. We would prefer that the woman should come and make her statement herself," she said.
Prabhavalkar further said that even before they received the letter, the Commission had written to the Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde seeking a probe into the matter.