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Monday, Apr 21, 2008
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State intelligence has nothing to do with phone tapping

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Office of senior police officer found as location of leak

CHENNAI: The phone tapping controversy, involving the top civil servant in the State and a senior police officer, has blown over with officials zeroing in on the location of the leak — the office of the senior police officer.

It turns out that the State intelligence had nothing to do with this tapping. Neither was this done with the connivance of any service provider.

The conversation between Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathy and Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption S.K. Upadhyay was tapped at the DVAC office. Immediately after the tapping became public, offices of the two were debugged.

Mr. Tripathy reportedly called the DVAC chief to his room and gave him a dressing-down. Sources said the DVAC officer, like many others in service, taped conversations and stored them on his computer. Based on the manner in which the leak found its way to the media, the sources added that one of two things could have happened: (1) a junior colleague who knew of the officer’s habit might have hacked into his system or (2) when his computer was on routine maintenance, an outsider gained access.

The government has taken the issue seriously. It had already announced a judicial probe into the tapping.

When an English newspaper carried what it called an ‘expose,’ it created serious embarrassment for the government. The Chief Secretary, the topmost civil servant in the administration, runs the government and the fact that he was watched by the people he served caused anxious moments for civil servants. “Basically the message that went out at that time was that all of us were under watch and that we were not trusted. I am sure many officers will be glad to know that this is not the case,” a senior State government official said.

The Chief Secretary, the officer corps and politicians across the spectrum are upset over the manner in which the leak had taken place. Ever since the DMK government came to power, the procedure for authorising a phone tap is religiously followed, say officials in the know of the subject. A committee, headed by the Home Secretary, considers the list of phones that intelligence wants to tap. Not all the numbers are cleared. The committee demands detailed explanation on why a number had to be watched.

Evidence lost?

Vital evidence is suspected to have been lost with the State intelligence reportedly conducting a search on the DVAC premises and laying its hands on electronic gadgets. Intelligence sleuths reportedly swooped down on the office of the Director last week and conducted a search operation. Hard disks and some other suspicious-looking materials were seized. However, the search was neither conducted in the presence of official witnesses nor was any DVAC official present, highly placed police sources said.

“Since no case has been registered, the question of issuing a search warrant does not arise. The raid looks like a suo motu operation perhaps with an intention to seize incriminating documents or evidence to prove that the phone conversation was recorded at the chambers of the DVAC top brass,” a police official said, adding that since the hard disk and other gadgets were taken away, vital evidence was lost.

“Once it goes out, it can be tampered with. Even if such seized materials contain the purported conversation, it would become difficult to prove who recorded it. Whoever might have recorded the conversation, it is a clear case of misconduct and breach of trust,” he said.

Raid denied

Sources in the intelligence agencies denied that any raid was conducted at the office of the DVAC Director and maintained that no such operation was ordered by the government or the competent authority.

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