Police chief’s phone tapped thrice: Interim report

Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao’s conversations were allegedly tapped three times between May and June while he was serving as the ADGP of Karnataka State Reserve Police Force 9th Battalion, according to an interim report submitted by the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), who is probing the phone tapping controversy.

The report stated the then Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) was legally intercepting the calls of managing director of Injaz International, Misbauddin S Mukarram. Injaz International was running a Ponzi scheme similar to IMA in which several investors were duped.

Later, the additional commissioner handed over four more phone numbers to an inspector of the technical wing of the CCB to intercept. One of the numbers belonged to Faraz, the report indicated.

The inspector, who followed the instructions of the additional commissioner, is now a DySP-rank officer.

When Faraz’s phone was intercepted, the CCB stumbled on Rao’s purported conversation with Faraz, who was in touch with many others in the department, sources said.

After Bhaskar Rao took over as the city police commissioner on August 2, an ADGP-rank officer using another police inspector from the technical wing leaked the tapped phone conversations to the media, the report said.

Further probe

Meanwhile, the chief of Central Crime Branch has recommended that the case be probed further by an independent agency, as police officers of ADGP rank were involved. “A case like this requires an investigation by a competent independent agency like CID or an SIT,” said a senior police officer.