JOIN US'Chewing gum' flutter in Pranab office
Mukherjee on Tuesday clarified that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had looked into the issue and found nothing. Speaking to newspersons he said: “I would like to clarify that Intelligence Bureau probed the case and found nothing.”
According to a front page report in a prominent English daily, on September 7, 2010, the finance minister wrote to the prime minister asking him to order a “secret inquiry” about the presence of “planted adhesives” in 16 key locations in his office.
These locations included the office of Mukherjee himself, the office of his adviser, the office of his private secretary Manoj Pant, and two conference rooms used by the finance minister.
However, in his letter to the prime minister, Mukherjee mentioned that no “live microphone or recording devices were found.”
According to the IB, a government forensic lab concluded that these adhesives were a “sort of chewing gum” and were apparently left by “the cleaning staff” of the finance ministry, the IB sought to say.
This conclusion is, however, not accepted by other investigative agencies. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (investigation), which has also conducted a thorough probe, described the substances in the 16 locations as “plantable adhesives,” the report added.