BREAKING NEWS: Phone-tapping charges baseless, Maharashtra govt free to probe: BJP rebuts Shiv Sena

MUMBAI: The BJP on Friday categorically rejected Maharashtra government's charge that the previous Devendra Fadnavis dispensation misused the government machinery to tap the phones of opposition leaders and an inquiry has been ordered in this regard. 

Defending his party, senior BJP leader and former minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said, ''If someone approaches Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut with a complaint in this regard, then one should go to the police and file an FIR, and not speak to media about this.''

Attacking Sena leader Sanjay Raut, Mungantiwar said that he just fulfiled his duty by tweeting on it. 

''One should know that there are strict laws against phone-tapping and, moreover, there was no use to tap anyone's phone. The charges are utterly baseless and unfounded,'' the BJP leader said.

Meanwhile, commenting on the issue, former chief minister Devendra Fadnav said, ''Phone-tapping of opposition leaders is not a tradition of Maharashtra. Our govt never gave such an order. Present state govt is free to do any probe by any agency. Even Shiv Sena leaders were a part of State Home Ministry then.''

"The whole country knows the credibility of those who have levelled such allegations," Fadnavis, who was the chief minister of the state between 2014 and 2019, said. "The state government is free to probe the allegations with the help of any machinery. People of Maharashtra know the truth. A Shiv Sena leader was the minister of state for home during my tenure," he added.

The reactions from the BJP leaders came after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh alleged that the previous Devendra Fadnavis dispensation misused government machinery to tap the phones of opposition leaders, and an inquiry has been ordered in this regard.

Talking to reporters here, Deshmukh said the cyber cell of the state police department has been directed to look into the complaints of phone-tapping and snooping of leaders who were then in the opposition.

He said the government is also trying to find those officers, who had been reportedly sent to Israel to study the snooping software then.

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"The cyber cell of Maharashtra police has been asked to look into the various complaints of snooping/phone tapping that came in during the previous government. The inquiry is being done following complaints of snooping on opposition leaders, especially during the formation of (Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi) government," Deshmukh said. 

"There is no doubt that the previous dispensation has misused the government machinery to tap of phones of leaders from opposition parties," he said.

Importantly, on Friday, Raut also alleged that a senior BJP minister of the previous government had warned him that his phone was being tapped.

"Your phone is being tapped. This was told to me by a senior BJP minister earlier. I told him whoever wishes to listen to my conversations is free to do so. I am a disciple of Balasaheb Thackeray, I don't do anything secretly," Raut had said in a tweet.