Second arrest in Jaitley phone tapping case

One more person was arrested on Monday for allegedly making an unauthorised attempt to access call data records of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley’s mobile phone, police said.

Neeraj Kumar, who works with a private detective firm, was arrested in north-east Delhi’s Shahdara. His arrest comes after Delhi Police constable Arvind Dabas was arrested on February 14.

“Neeraj was identified as an accused during interrogation of Arvind,” a police official said, adding it is believed Neeraj sought call data records of several other people with Arvind’s help.

It is alleged that Jaitley’s call details were accessed by stealing password of assistant commissioner of police (operations, New Delhi) Bhoop Singh’s e-mail to send such requests to telecom operators. Jaitley’s mobile number was sent to service provider Airtel as part of a clutch of numbers for which police had official sanction to seek details.

Delhi Police also submitted a status report of the case to Union home ministry on Monday. According to the report, raids are being conducted to nab two more aides of Arvind and Neeraj.

The report said Arvind, posted with Parliament Street police station, sought Jaitley’s call data record for personal reasons, but further probe is on.

Arvind told police that he was merely checking antecedents of two persons from Uttarakhand, who boasted about their proximity to Jaitley. Arvind runs a real estate business with two friends in Uttarakhand, and was assured of settlement in a Rs 50 lakh property deal.

Union home ministry had asked Delhi Police about status of the case on Saturday after several BJP leaders alleged the UPA government’s hand in the spying. A case under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act has been filed in special cell police station.