Rajnath seeks info on Italian marines, phone tap cases

At a meeting with senior officials last week, the Home Minister was reportedly briefed that India had extended all possible cooperation during the investigation as well as the trial of the marines but the delay had been caused by the Italians authorities.

The minister was told that one of the primary reasons for the delay was that Italy did not allow questioning of the four other marines onboard the ship Enrica Lexie and which was finally done via video-conferencing.

Last week, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini had called up External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and raised the issue of the pending trial.

The MHA meeting was also attended by MoS Home Kiren Rijiju, Director Intelligence Bureau (DIB) Asif K Ibrahim, National Investigation Agency (NIA) chief Sharad Kumar and Home Secretary Anil Goswami.
Sources said it was a familiarisation meeting on internal security but cases related to alleged Hindu terror or Indian Mujahideen were not discussed.

The other important area on which the Home minister was briefed were the cases of phone interception by various investigating agencies.

“The minister was informed about the legalities and procedure, if any, investigating agency wanted to go ahead for phone interception. After the Niira Radia case the legality and validity of such interceptions by law enforcement agencies had come to the fore and even a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court over the issue. The minister wanted to have a first hand knowledge about these cases,” said a senior official who did not want to be named.