The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials probing the phone-tapping case questioned Additional Director General of Police, Alok Kumar for the second day in a row, here on Friday.
CBI officials led by S P Kiran Kumar grilled Alok for around eight hours, after he appeared before them at Kumara Krupa guesthouse in the city at 11 am in the morning. He was questioned till 7 pm during which CBI officials sought details on the numbers tapped between August 1, 2018 and August 19, 2019. Alok was Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) and Commissioner of Police, during the said period.
According to sources, authorities had questioned few police personnel attached to the Cyber Crime technical unit recently, who while recording their statements had pointed fingers at “senior officials” for directing them to tap phones. Apart from politicians and bureaucrats, sources said, phones of few TV journalists were also allegedly tapped.
During the day, CBI - which collated information on the numbers allegedly tapped during the previous government, sought details from Alok on why calls on those numbers were intercepted.
It can be recalled that the alleged phone-tapping case came out in the open after Alok was shunted out and replaced by Bhaskar Rao as Commissioner of Police. Soon after, Bhaskar Rao’s telephone conversation with one Faraz Ahmed was leaked to the media.
BJP government handed over the case to CBI after complaints that telephones of more than 300 people were tapped by the Kumaraswamy-led Cong-JD(S) coalition government.