Access to CDR: Jaitley rejects Delhi Police explanation

Dismissing Delhi Polices suggestion that attempt to access his call detail records (CDRs),which included authorised and unauthorised attempts

Dismissing Delhi Polices suggestion that attempt to access his call detail records (CDRs),which included authorised and unauthorised attempts,were unconnected,Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley Wednesday sought to allege that these attempts were either part of an outsourced operation to a government agency or a private rogue operation. He also rejected the polices justification for not being able to trace the mastermind.

The details of these calls being observed through official and illegal channels were for the periods November-December 2012 and January 2013. It is obvious that somebody during this period was desperately trying to look for some evidence in my call details. The Delhi Police would have me believe that these were unconnected developments . My guess is still wide open. This could be an outsourced operation to a government agency or a private rogue operation, Jaitley said in a signed article issued to the media Thursday.

Revealing Delhi Polices admission of seeking his CDRs thrice in different cases,Jaitley has highlighted that these CDRs were accessed around the same time when a private detective agency also sought to access his call records in an unauthorised fashion. Jaitley,in this context,has rejected the polices excuse that these developments were co-incidental.

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Regrettably the Delhi Police believes that each of these efforts are unconnected… I find it difficult to accept this explanation that it is unable to find out the mastermind, Jaitley has said.

Though Jaitley has not mentioned the three cases in whose connection the Police extracted his CDRs,he appear to indicate that twice his CDRs were accessed in connection to Ponty Chadha murder case and another at the pretext of seeking information in a fake currency case. The motives of unauthorised access by a private detective firm,however,remains unclear.

Jaitley has also rejected the reasons for police seeking authorised CDRs because he hardly had any connection to these pretexts. Incidentally,the period mentioned by Jaitley,November-December 2012 and January 2013,coincides with fierce backroom political maneuvering within the BJP in the run up to elections to the post of BJP president.

In his article,Jaitley also alleged that it could be an attempt to hide the identity of the person because it could be embarrassing for the government. He also raised the larger issue of privacy. The nature of communication,the identity of persons being communicated with and frequency of communications would be a serious breach of privacy, he has said.