Assam CM Alleges Jharkhand Minister Champai Soren Under Government Surveillance, Claims Espionage

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday alleged that Jharkhand minister Champai Soren had been under "surveillance of his own government" for last five months.

Two sub-inspectors (SIs) of Special Branch of Jharkhand Police were nabbed by Soren's people in a Delhi hotel on Tuesday while they were keeping watch on the ex-chief minister, Sarma said.

"We all know that Champai Soren is a minister in the Jharkhand government, he is also an ex-chief minister. He has decided to join BJP on August 30, but he is yet to resign and remains a minister…but his own government has put him under surveillance," Sarma claimed at a press conference here.

"Soren had been put under surveillance five months ago, even before he was in talks with the BJP," the Assam CM claimed.

He claimed the two SIs had been following Soren on his Delhi trips, taking the same flight and staying in the same five-star hotel as the minister.

"Champai Soren's people spotted these two persons at the Delhi hotel on Tuesday and nabbed them. Initially, they claimed to be journalists but later admitted to be Special Branch SIs. They were handed over to Chanakyapuri Police Station there and Soren has also filed an FIR," Sarma said.

"Whether Delhi Police will arrest them or not, we don't know as the SIs claimed to be on duty," he said, without sharing the names or photographs of the two officials as "they might have been involved in Naxal or other undercover operations".

The CM said the two SIs have claimed that a "person in Constitutional position" and the Special Branch chief, Inspector General Prabhat Kumar, had put them on duty to "track" Champai Soren.

Terming it a "serious case of espionage", Sarma said, "This is one of rarest case of surveillance in Indian politics, we will raise it at the highest levels." Hitting out at the JMM-Congress, he said, "They claim to be the protectors of the Constitution. And here they are, intruding the basic right of privacy and life of a colleague of their own. Is Soren a Naxal, an extremist?" The Assam CM said it is also suspected now that Soren's phones could be tapped and there might have been a plan to 'honey trap' him as a woman had also been meeting the two SIs.

"We demand a thorough investigation into the matter," Sarma added.