Phones of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse were tapped on the pretext of them being anti-social elements, the Mumbai Police said on Wednesday, 20 April.
"During the investigation, it was found that some other names were mentioned as anti-social elements in State Intelligence Dept (SID) letter which was sent to ACS Home for phone tapping that's why the ACS gave the permission for the same," the Mumbai Police said.
"After that, the phone of NCP leader Eknath Khadse was tapped for 67 days while that of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was tapped for 60 days," the police added.
Sanjay Raut Reacts
Reacting to the news, Sanjay Raut said, "All those leaders whose phones were tapped were shown falsely as anti-social elements. Leaders like Nana Patole, or me and the four others... all were shown as anti-social elements falsely. This was all bogus and the phones were tapped and this is now becoming clear. Some were shown as drug peddlers, some were shown as gangsters. All this was happening when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was being formed. So someone was watching us and was monitoring to see what the MVA was doing," Raut said, according to The Times of India.
"With this, our privacy was breached. An IPS officer who is supposed to work independently, was working for one political party and was doing this to show loyalty to one particular leader of a particular party. Now the central government is giving her protection just like it is giving to so many others. This is very unfortunate and disappointing," Raut added.
(With inputs from ANI & Times of India.)
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