Author: Neeraj Chauhan
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 5, 2006
Other phones were also being tapped, claim
police ---- The conduit between the mastermind and Samajwadi Party leader
Amar Singh's phone-tapping, Bhupendra Kumar, was getting richer by Rs 5 lakh
each week for uploading the conversation of Mr Singh on a compact disc (CD).
Kumar got more bang for the buck as it was
dangerous tapping a leader like Amar Singh on a Reliance Infocomm number.
After all, Mr Singh is known for his proximity to the promoter of Reliance
Infocomm.
"The private detective had earned more
than Rs 50 lakh in the over two and a half months phone-tapping operation,"
a senior Delhi Police official said on Wednesday.
While police had identified the 'mastermind'
who used Bhupendra's good offices to tap Mr Singh's phone, they refused to
name him. All that the official said was, "We have identified the key
conspirator. He is an influential person of the city."
Prior to opening a private detective agency
two years ago, Bhupendra was working as a recovery agent for a bank. He was
running his agency from the second floor of a house in South Extension.
"As a recovery agent, he was quite successful.
We are in touch with the officials of the bank to find out the methods he
applied in recovering outstanding dues of the bank, which is a leading name
in the market," sources said.
According to Special Cell officers, preliminary
investigations had revealed that Bhupendra was a professional in his work
as was evident by the fact that there were no mistakes in the forged letters
which were given to Reliance Infocomm, except for a few spelling errors.
They added that he was quite experienced in
tapping phones and had tapped telephone numbers of several persons in the
last 24 months. Only this time he was paid a handsome amount that he never
received in his professional life. Apart from the substantial amount, he also
could not afford to refuse the "influential person", who has been
identified now.
"Prior to this, Bhupendra had also tapped
several phones of different persons and a list of all the phone-tap requests
would be reviewed that have been given to the telecom service providers in
the last six months," Special Cell Joint Commissioner of Police Karnail
Singh said.
The greed of the large sum of money forced
him to get forged letters with the permission granted by Joint Commissioner
of Police (Crime) Ranjit Narayan and R Narayan Swamy, Principal Secretary
(Home).
"From now on, each request for tapping
would be first forwarded to the Joint Commissioner of Police, Special Cell,
for verification and only then be considered.
The Special Cell has become a foolproof nodal
agency for these types of requests in future. The telecom service providers
would have to send all the requests to the Special Cell along with the name
and address of the person who has made the request and the name of the officer
who has been permitted to do so," Mr Singh said.
While Special Cell officers have not disclosed
all the details they claim that they have cracked the case and will make public
everything in another two days. When asked whether others were involved in
the phone-tapping case apart from Bhupendra and Kuldeep, JCP Karnail Singh
did not rule out the possibility but reiterated that everything would be clear
after proper investigation.
Police said Bhupendra used to transfer the
whole conversation into CD format before handing it over to the key conspirator.
"This conversation cost the mastermind Rs 5 lakh every week as it was
a dangerous task to tap Mr Singh's phone connection of Reliance (011-39565414)
because Amar Singh is close to Reliance Energy Limited," police official
said.
During interrogation, he has admitted the
tapping was getting him lakhs of rupees. He was paying Rs 12,000 as monthly
rent to the landlord. Bhupendra will be produced in a city court on Thursday.
Serious matter: Prakash
New Delhi: The CPI (M) on Wednesday seized
the phone tapping issue to flag its concern over national security in opening
up of the telecom sector. "As far as the tapping of phone of Singh is
concerned, it is a serious matter because it has been established that through
a private telephone company tapping has been done illegally. There should
be a proper investigation to uncover the conspiracy behind it", CPI (M)
general secretary Prakash Karat has said.
Manmohan agrees
Port Blair: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
has said the phone-tapping issue involving Samajwadi Party leaders was a "very
serious matter". "It is very serious matter. Phone tapping should
not be there. There are no two views on it", he said.
