Police give clean chit to govt in phone tapping row

In a veiled criticism of the Samajwadi Party and its leader Amar Singh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said it was "very unfortunate" that the name of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and his office were being dragged into the phone-tapping controversy.

The Delhi Police today gave a clean chit to the government in the telephone tapping case and said it was a "case of forgery and cheating"

"The government has made it clear that the law of the land will take care of those people who indulge in (such things). It is very unfortunate the name of the Congress president and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) are being dragged into this," Singh told reporters.

The remarks of the prime minister came a day after Amar Singh apologised to Singh for dragging the names of some officials of the PMO into the controversy but had continued his campaign against Gandhi charging her with being the mastermind behind it.

The prime minister prefaced his remarks by saying he had already said phone-tapping should never take place except in cases relating to national security.

Singh's oblique criticism of Amar Singh and the SP came at a time when the party had been reaching out to non-UPA parties to garner support on the phone tapping issue.

Delhi Police Commissioner KK Paul in a report submitted to Home Secretary VK Duggal ruled out the involvement of the government in the matter as alleged by Amar Singh. "The report was given to me today. It clearly rules out the role of the government in the matter. It is a case of forgery and cheating," Duggal said.

The report, apprising progress in the investigation into the charges, also talked about the arrests made so far. Three people, including two owners of private detective agencies, have been arrested in the tapping case so far. The police believe that one of the two detectives had forged letters seeking permission to intercept the telephone of Amar Singh.

Amid the controversy over phone tapping, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) tonight said it would seek information from telecom companies whether they were meeting all requirements as per the licence conditions.

"When there are so many complaints, we shall ask companies please tell us whether you are meeting the requirements," Trai member DPS Seth said.

As per the licence conditions, telecom companies could not do illegal phone tapping, he said adding "if we get a complaint from security agencies, then we can check whether they are violating any of the license norms."

Trai looks into licence conditions and investigations are carried out by vigilance agencies. Trai Chairman Pradeep Baijal said there was a law that allowed security agencies to tap phone lines but if that law was used by non-policeman or a non-security agency "it's a serious breach".

"If a security agency comes to us, we will definitely help in finding a long-term solution," he said.