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| Does phone tapping theory in Giri "encounter" hold water? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 28: Finding it hard to digest the phone tapping theory of police in the Giri encounter, senior officers of the state administration strongly feel that it was allegedly floated to give legal cover to the "encounter".
After the alleged encounter, which Giri's father Jeet Raj maintains was staged, police claimed they were keeping a track on the victim's 25 cellphone numbers.
Police also claimed that it was only after they tapped his cellphones for two months that they came to know about the conspiracy he had allegedly hatched with Nagar Singh alias Nago to eliminate witnesses in the Amandeep murder case.
Telephone tapping often needs to be authorised by a court, or by the home department. In the Giri's case, however, it was not made public by police if they had a permission from either of the two to tap the phone, if they had actually done so.
The whole affair is going to make us take a close look at how secure our privacy is.
Right to privacy is a part of right to life and liberty as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India, a senior lawyer said. "It is extended to telephone tapping but Right to Information cannot be invoked in this matter," he added.
On July 27 this year, uproarious scenes were witnessed in both the Houses of the parliament over the phone tapping issue. A former J&K chief minister had also accused a top CID official of tapping his phone after he was thrown out of power.
A senior civil officer said in police and political circles, everybody wanted to know what his rival was doing, or conspiring against the state machinery.
"Nothing is private if someone really wants to sniff something out on phone," he added, saying paranoid people were making efforts to discover newer ways to keep a track on others. It was not sure if the police had tapped Giri's numbers also, or they had made this statement to give legal cover to their act, he added.
The officer said invasion on an ordinary citizen's privacy was a crime punishable under law. The district police have already landed in a trouble with jail authorities denying their claim that the conspiracy to eliminate witnesses in the Amandeep murder was hatched in the Kote-Bhalwal jail. They said Giri was never lodged there.
Police sources said phone tapping was permitted based on court order only and such permission was granted if it was required to prevent a major offence involving national security or to gather intelligence on anti-national/terrorist activities.
The central and the state governments were also empowered to order interception of messages as per section 5 of Indian Telegraph Act 1885. Rule 419 and 419A set out the procedure for interception and monitoring of telephone messages.
There is a provision for a review committee to supervise the order of interception.
Though economic offences, including tax evasion, were initially covered under the reasons for interception of phones, the same was withdrawn in 1999 by the government based on a Supreme Court order citing protection to privacy of the individual. |
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