Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 5: It has come to light that an IPS officer of the rank of superintendent of police was the mastermind of the phone tapping episode which happened during the coalition government's rule in the state. The tapping had happened when rumours of the efforts to undermine the coalition government had spread. The fact that telephone numbers of some important politicians and Swamijis were included in the list of phone numbers of people backed by criminal activities to obtain permission to tap their phones, has come as a surprise.

This information is being discussed in hushed tones within the police department. The IPS officer who was then heading a division was the one who was behind these plans. However, the noose of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe is getting tightened around the necks of some assistant commissioners of police and inspectors and the IPS officer concerned is likely to escape from it, it is said.

The said officer had a say in the functioning of the central crime branch here. He was the one who had advised to resort to phone tapping, when efforts to topple the government were rumoured to be on. As a result, the plan of phone tapping was drawn by the central crime branch (CCB) here.

The CCB officials were aware that it was impossible to obtain permission of the home department to listen to telephonic conversations of politicians, religious heads, and some dignitaries. Therefore, they added telephone numbers of Math heads and politicians to the list of criminals. Thereafter, phones were being tapped in the technical department of CCB.

The name of Adichunchanagiri Swamiji was added to the list of sandalwood smugglers, while phone number of politicians, dignitaries and Math heads were included in the list of people involved with murders, kidnapping, cheating etc. The said officer was conveying the information he got through this phone tapping, it is learnt.

The officer, who was the mastermind of the phone tapping, seems to have escaped from the investigation as he was working as in-charge for some other department then.