Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru 

Bengaluru, Aug 15: Following complaints from several leaders that their phones were tapped when the Congress-JD(S) coalition government was ruling in Karnataka, chief minister B S Yediyurappa ordered a detailed investigation on Wednesday, August 14. 

In a meeting in Bengaluru, Yediyurappa told chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar that an investigation is necessary to find people responsible for misusing government machinery. 

Senior BJP leader R Ashok alleged that the coalition government approved illegal phone tapping of opposition leaders, journalists and police officers. 

“Six months back, I had complained to the coalition government regarding the breach of privacy. However, the government had denied these claims. Now reports prove that the phones were tapped,” he told media. 

Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda told media that misusing positions and tapping phones is a criminal offence. “The probe will reveal who is responsible for the scandal,” he said. 

The phone-tapping scandal got murkier after Joint-Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil, who was ordered to probe the incident, submitted the interim report to DG & IG Neelmani Raju on Monday. 

According to the interim report, an ADGP-rank officer had played a major role in prying into the private phone conversations of fellow officers and his seniors. 

The report reveals the names of several senior leaders from BJP, Congress and JD(S), besides journalists and senior officials whose phones were tapped. The report states that telephone conversations of more than 185 people were illegally tapped. 

On Wednesday in a press conference, disqualified MLA A H Vishwanath alleged that the then CM’s office was misused for phone-tapping. 

He said that phones of 17 rebel MLAs were tapped and held the then CM HD Kumaraswamy for eavesdropping. “Kumaraswamy lacked confidence in his party men or coalition partners,” he said.