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Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh has requested the Supreme Court to initiate an impartial judicial probe into the telephone tapping of opposition party members by those in power and also direct prosecution of those found guilty in the probe.
The petition was filed on his behalf by senior Supreme Court advocate, P H Parekh.
In his petition, Amar Singh has named 8 respondents, including the Union of India through the Ministry of Telecommunications, Home Ministry, Principal Home Secretary, Delhi Commissioner of Police, Indian National Congress through its President and Reliance Infocom through its Director.
Talking to media persons at the Samajwadi Party headquarters later in the afternoon, Amar Singh claimed that telephones of former external affairs minister Natwar Singh and Supreme Court judges were also being tapped.
"A leading national daily printed the phone call records of a SC judge on its front page. Likewise, phones of Natwar Singh are also being tapped. In fact, intelligence officials have bugged his whole house. My conversations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were also being tapped," he alleged.
Amar Singh said if the prime minister's office or Dr Singh himself has been hurt by some of his utterings about the involvement of certain individuals from his office in the phone-tapping episode, he was ready to tender an apology. He claimed that the tapping was being done at the instance of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
"Despite all this, we will continue our support to the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party government at the centre to prevent communal forces from coming to power," he said.
He claimed that he was not afraid of any audio or videotape being released.
"Audio tape is not even admissible in the court of law as the voice can be modulated. If Sudesh Bhonsle can sing in Amitabh Bachchan's voice then someone could copy mine as well. I want to ask the Congress spokesperson how she knew of the contents of the tapes if she did not have access to them or tapping was not done at the behest of the Congress president," he quipped.
"My advocate friend Abhishek Singhvi (Congress leader) says it is my private affair. Tomorrow if I were to be murdered, then they would say the same thing. My fundamental right has been taken away," he said.
He plans to meet former Prime Minister Chandershekhar, whose government was brought down by the Congress party because two Haryana police constables were seen hanging around party leader Rajiv Gandhi's house, and other political leaders over the next couple of days to seek their support.
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