Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Friday denied phone tapping charges levelled against him by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh and urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order a probe into the allegation.
“I urge the Prime Minister to order an inquiry by CBI or any other high agency into allegation of the union minister that his landline and mobile phones are being tapped by the state government and is haunted by a posse of CID sleuths deployed near his house here,” Mr. Dhumal said in the state assembly.
He said, “Mr. Singh is probably forgetting that telephone tapping can be done on the order of Telecom ministry which is under the Union Government and not the state“.
Mr. Dhumal said he would lodge a complaint with the Home Minister regarding the issue.
The Chief Minister said as per Mr. Singh’s wish to increase security at his house in the capacity of a an ex-CM, a seven member police team under a head constable is deployed at his house.
“If he does not require the security, the state government will be happy to withdraw it,” he said.
Mr. Dhumal said if the allegation is proved wrong, then the Prime Minister should initiate strict action against Mr. Singh.
Mr. Singh had on Wednesday alleged that his telephones were being tapped by the state government and he was being hounded by state vigilance sleuths.
