Maharashtra Govt orders high-level inquiry into 'phone tapping' during Fadnavis regime

The Maharashtra government on Friday ordered an inquiry into the phone tapping case in the previous Devendra Fadnavis-led government from 2015 to 2019. Congress MLA and state party president Nana Patole had levelled allegations of phone tapping against the former government earlier this year. 

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had announced in the state assembly that a high-level inquiry will be conducted on the matter and action will be taken against the guilty. He also said that police officers need to provide telephone numbers and reasons for surveillance while seeking permission for it from the additional chief secretary (Home).

Maharashtra phone tapping case

Earlier this year, Congress' Nana Patole had alleged that phones of several important political leaders from NCP, BJP, and Shiv Sena as well as those of IAS and IPS officers, were tapped during the erstwhile BJP led government.
 
Claiming that his own mobile was also being tapped, Nana Patole had alleged that the phone tapping was carried out under the pretext of exposing drug trafficking.

During the assembly session, Patole sought to know the phone tapping was conducted under whose instructions. Meanwhile, Water Resource Minister Jayant Patil demanded to know how many legislators were under the scanner.

"My phone number was also tapped by wrongly showing that it belonged to one Amjad Khan... Linking my name to drug trafficking is condemnable. Who allowed it and for what? This is a crime and infringement of an individual's privacy," Patole alleged. 'Why was my phone number linked to a Muslim name and a drug peddler. Didn't the officials know I was an MP (at that time)?' he asked. 

The Congress leader suggested that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government conduct a high-level probe and punish the guilty. Patole had quit the BJP in December 2017 when he was an MP and later returned to the Congress.