I am being followed, my phone is also tapped, says DKS

Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who is being probed by the Income Tax department, on Tuesday claimed that his phone had been tapped and he was "followed wherever I go."

The revelation comes a day after Water Resources Minister M B Patil complained to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that his phone was tapped allegedly by Central government officials.

"My phone has been tapped, too," Shivakumar told reporters in Bengaluru. "I'm being followed everyday. I'm being pursued wherever I go," he said.

I-T authorities raided Shivakumar's home for three consecutive days in August, even as the Congress strongman was playing host to over 40 party legislators from Gujarat who had camped in a resort outside Bengaluru ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls from their state.

Shivakumar did not specifically say 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 "wrongly" 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 BJP 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.

"M B Patil  is emerging as a prominent Lingayat leader because of his 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. When asked, Reddy said his phone was not bugged. "There's no use in tapping my phone."