Rajasthan BJP says phone-tapping provision will be misused to snoop on rivals, rebels

While the law is in line with the existing provisions — Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules-2007, which say that phone-tapping permission “shall not be issued except by an order made by the Secretary to the government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs in the case of government of India, and by the Secretary to the state government in-charge of the Home department in the case of a State Government” — it is the timing of the Bill that has been questioned by the Opposition BJP.

Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Rajendra Rathore, told The Indian Express that “organised gangs have already raised the graph of crime to such levels and the government is in its last phase [of tenure]”, so, naturally, questions would arise about the intention behind “bringing such a law about seven months before the imposition of model code of conduct, where they want to tap telephones”.

Notably, all the laws or rules concerning phone tapping in the state are Central. In its reply to an Assembly question by former BJP minister Kalicharan Saraf in 2020-21, the government had said that the phones are intercepted under the provisions of The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2007, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Hence, the present law will be the first in the state concerning phone tapping. In this regard, the new law will give the state officials a broader area to function, going beyond the limited provisions of the Central laws and rules.

Attacking the Congress, Rathore said that the law will be employed to retain and “save its [CM] chair in the last few months. It will be employed to monitor the internal conflicts of the government, rebels, and to formulate (poll) strategy after tapping the phones of Opposition leaders”. He said that he will raise the issue in the Assembly during the debate on the Bill, which is expected this week.

In the statement for objects and reasons of the Bill, the government said that “in view of the emerging situation of organised crime in the state… it has become imperative to introduce a similar legislation [as MCOCA] in the state which ensures effective legal action against organised crimes. Such a strong legislation shall also suitably empower the police in a lawful manner to take strong and deterrent but lawful action against the criminals”.

Phone tapping has been a contentious issue under the present government, leading to multiple FIRs.

In 2020, leaked call recordings allegedly of Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Rajasthan’s Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh, Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma and others, followed by a rebellion by then Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, led to a political crisis in the state. The Ashok Gehlot camp had acted quickly on the audio clips — including making them viral as per a minister’s own claim — to save the government.

Then chief whip Mahesh Joshi had lodged two complaints with the Special Operations Group of Rajasthan Police on the basis of the audio clips, including against Shekhawat, Sharma, etc.

In October 2020, the state police filed an FIR against Pilot’s media manager Lokendra Singh and Aaj Tak’s Jaipur-based editor Sharat Kumar, accusing them of spreading “misleading and fake news” regarding the phones of MLAs sequestered by the CM at a hotel in Jaisalmer being tapped.

Days after The Indian Express reported in March 2021 that the government has accepted to “intercepting telephones after permission” from the competent authority during the political crisis, Shekhawat, in turn, lodged a police complaint against CM’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Lokesh Sharma, who had allegedly made the 2020 audio clips viral. Chief whip Joshi had also been summoned by Delhi Police in the case. On Monday too, Sharma was questioned by the Delhi Police for several hours in connection with the case.

At the heart of the government’s claim was that it was intercepting phones of certain criminal elements, and when their call recordings with politicians emerged where they were allegedly planning to topple the government, all came under investigation.

In his reply to the debate on the phone-tapping issue in March 2021, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said that the Centre and state governments are authorised to preserve public order and prevent a crime from taking place. He said that it was in that context that police officials were granted authorisation to intercept phones of Ashok Singh and Bharat Malani over “illegal weapons and explosives”.

“They are not public representatives. When phones of these two were intercepted, the political conversations too came up, where they were talking about exchange of money and toppling of the government,” Dhariwal said.

As per the BJP, the government may again employ this pretext to record conversations of Opposition leaders and Congress rebels in a bid to outsmart them.

Among other provisions under the new Bill, conviction for committing organised crime will lead to an imprisonment between five years to life term, and a minimum fine of Rs 5 lakh. Additionally, if the crime has resulted in death, it will be punishable with death or imprisonment for life and a minimum fine of Rs 1 lakh.

The Bill says that the authorisation for wiretaps would not be “for any period longer than what is necessary to achieve the objective of the authorisation”, or up to a maximum of 60 days.

The Bill further states that “an interception under this section may be conducted in whole or in parts by a public servant, or by an individual operating under a contract with the state government, acting under the supervision of the investigative or law enforcement officer authorised to conduct the interception”.