Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan has said that he stands by the statements he had made on the floor of the House regarding the alleged telephone tapping of public servants, including MLAs. Addressing a hurriedly called press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Radhakrishnan said he had made the statement based on the information he had as the Minister for Home.
The State government was bound by the provisions of Section 5(2) of Indian telegraph Act of 1885 in this regard. All governments, including the former LDF government, was bound by the provision, he said.
“As steps in this regard were to be taken as a departmental action, the Minister was not bound to intervene in it,” he said. “There are clear rules regarding the steps that can be taken against a suspect involved in a case,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said, and added that the State government had not and would not go beyond such boundaries set by the rules concerned.
The investigations would take the path of law, he said. All steps to ensure an effective investigation (in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case) would be decided by the investigating team.
“When we say the issues are highly confidential, it implies that they cannot be made public. Even if a decision has to be taken as to whether it could be divulged in public, it has to be done by the investigating agency concerned, and not the Minister,” he said.
The Home Minister alleged that the issue was now being raked up for the consumption of its own party members as the CPI(M) was engaged in the process of reporting on the Chandrasekharan murder case and the issues faced by the party to lower levels.
