JOIN USKarnataka Energy Minister DK Shivakumar, who is being probed by the Income Tax, said on Tuesday that his phone had been tapped and he was "followed wherever I go."
The revelation comes a day after Water Resources Minister MB Patil complained to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that his phone was tapped by Central government officials.
"My phone has been tapped, too," Shivakumar told reporters on Tuesday. "I'm being followed everyday. I'm being pursued wherever I go," he said.
IT authorities raided Shivakumar's home for three consecutive days in August, even as the Congress strongman was hosting over 40 party legislators from Gujarat who camped in a resort outside Bengaluru.
Shivakumar did not specifically said who was tapping his phone. "Many agencies are authorised to tap phones. How can I say who did it," he said. "But such attempts are on ever since I came to power."
The minister also hit out against a Kannada TV news channel for reporting that the Enforcement Directorate was probing him. "Beware. I'm the rock of Kanakapura. If you hit your head against it, your head will break," he said.
The Congress and the BJP have blamed each other of tapping phones of their leaders. Recently, BJP leader R Ashoka accused the ruling Congress of tapping the phones of 162 party leaders. In response, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said the BJP-led government at the Centre had tapped phones of more than 30 Congress leaders in the state.
"MB Patil and (Mines and Geology Minister) Vinay Kulkarni are emerging as prominent Lingayat leaders because of their involvement in the movement for a separate religion. This has rattled the BJP. As a result, they are using phone-tapping as a weapon," Reddy said.