Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot govt admits phone tapping during political crisis

The Rajasthan BJP on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Ashok Gehlot government after it accepted phone tapping during the political crisis of July last year It accused Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of crossing all limits and bypassing laws just to save his chairEight months after leaked phone conversations between a Union minister and Congress leaders in Rajasthan triggered a political crisis in the state Gehlots government recently confirmed that phones were indeed interceptedThe confirmation was posted on the website of the Rajasthan Assembly in reply to a question asked during the House session of August 2020BJP MLA Kalicharan Saraf in his question asked Is it true that phone tapping cases were done in the last days If yes under which law and on whose orders Place details on the table of the HouseIn the reply furnished after a delay of many months the government said In the interest of public safety or public order and to prevent the occurrence of a crime which might risk public safety or public order telephones are intercepted after an approval by a competent officer under the provisions of section 52 of The Indian Telegraph Act 1885 and section 419 A of The Indian Telegraph Amendment Rules 2007 as well as section 69 of the Information Technology Act 2000Telephone interception has been done by the Rajasthan Police under the above provision only after obtaining permission from the competent officerAs per the provision described in Rule 419A and Section 69 of the Information Technology Act 2000 the approval of the competent authority is granted it saidCases taken on antitrust are reviewed as per rules under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary Government of Rajasthan All the cases up to the month of November 2020 have been reviewed the answer informedHowever details regarding the telephone numbers that were intercepted and the time for which they were put under surveillance have not been shared and the answer remains limited in its approachMeanwhile state BJP president Satish Poonia in his tweet attacked Ashok Gehlot and accused him of conspiring against the people of his own partyIn his two tweets he also accused Gehlot of wearing a false mask of Gandhism and shedding crocodile tears for democracyThose who wear the false mask of Gandhism and cry for democracy ashokgehlot51 Ji crossed all limits for the sake of saving the chair They conspired against the people of their own party but even tapped the telephone of the leaders of the opposition party in an unethical manner indulged in spying he said in his tweetIn his second tweet he shared the media cuttings and said that The government has accepted this in response to the Vidhan Sabha question Now what will Gandhi of Marwar answerMeanwhile Saraf said that he is yet to receive a written reply from the state governmentThe political crisis in the Rajasthan government was reported in July 2020 after recordings of phone conversations among Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat then Rajasthan Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh and Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma among others were leakedSoon after the Special Operations Group of the Rajasthan Police made them the base for an FIR against Shekhawat and Sharma among othersHowever Gehlot at that time denied the allegations and claimed that it was not the way of his government to tap the phones of Ministers and MLAsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever