Congress hits out government for proposed move to scrap Snoopgate probe

New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday took a swipe at the NDA government over its proposed move to give a quiet burial to the UPA dispensation's controversial move to order a probe into the Snoopgate affair, saying it was "quite natural" after the change of guard at the Centre.

"'Jab sainya bhaye kotwal, to dar kahe ka' (when police is the beloved, then why nurse any fear)," Congress leader Digvijay Singh said in his reaction to the reported move.

"Since the regime has changed, this is quite natural," he told reporters after a meeting with Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Congress leader claimed that there was substantive proof against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leader Amit Shah, who as the then Chief Minister and Minister of State for Home of Gujarat respectively, ordered surveillance of a young women in 2009.

"Both Telegraph Act and the Information Technology Act were violated while tapping the phones. Considering all these aspects the previous government had ordered the probe which the new government now going to cancel," he said.

Party spokesperson Shobha Oza termed the proposed move as very unfortunate.

"The case was related to the snooping of a woman and was spread in more than one state. Various state agencies were involved. That is why we had demanded an inquiry by a judge and the Commission was set up. Now efforts are being made to wind up that Commission. That is very unfortunate," she told reporters.

Oza said that the proposed Commission was not only to investigate Snoopgate of Gujarat but also other issues like charges of snooping on Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh by the previous BJP government when he was in the opposition as well as the leaking of the call data records of then Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, now Union Finance Minister, in Delhi.

She said that if an argument is being given that a Commission was already set up in Gujarat to probe the Snoopgate, the fact is that "the deadline of the Commission expired in November last year but we are yet to have anything out of it".