New Delhi: All set to crack down on illegal phone tapping, the Centre has asked the government agencies and state governments to return all surveillance equipment. "MHA has not authorised any phone tapping of any political leaders," said Home Minister P Chidambaram in a damage control mode in Parliament last year. But the ghost of illegal phone tapping that's been haunting the government and corporate India refuses to go away...
08:11 PM, May 25, 2011
New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will continue to enjoy the power of telephone tapping despite a strong recommendation by a Committee of Secretaries against it following a controversy in the wake of the Niira Radia episode. "The CBDT will continue to have the power of phone tapping subject to certain Conditions," an official said. However, it is not immediately clear the conditions the CBDT will have...
11:27 AM, May 22, 2011
New Delhi: A day after the Supreme Court lifted a gag order on his tapped telephonic conversations, former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Thursday admitted that the tapes had his voice but alleged a cut and paste job. "I don't say it was not my voice. But if you are tapping someone's phone for over an year, the conversations can be put in other context. The tapes are spliced,...
03:26 PM, May 12, 2011
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on Wednesday on the issue of lifting the stay on publishing and telecasting the tapped conversations of former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh with top political leaders and Bollywood stars. The apex court had on February 27, 2006, restrained the electronic and the print media from broadcasting and publishing the contents of the tapped conversations of anyone, including that of Singh....
08:47 PM, May 10, 2011
New Delhi: Market watchdog SEBI has sought the Government's permission to tap phones during its probe into suspected financial irregularities in its third such request in less than three years. The latest request has been made by SEBI Chairman UK Sinha after his predecessor CB Bhave failed at least twice in his attempts to secure an authorisation for SEBI to tap phone for its surveillance and investigative actions. In his...
05:02 PM, Apr 11, 2011
New Delhi: Corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and industrialist Ratan Tata were on Monday grilled by Parliament's Public Accounts (PAC) Committee on her tapped conversations with politicians, corporates, bureaucrats and journalists in connection with alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation. PAC Chief and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said that Ratan Tata accepted that he had written to Karunanidhi about A Raja. "Tata gave answers to all questions candidly. Both...
07:07 PM, Apr 04, 2011
New Delhi: Corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and industrialist Ratan Tata were on Monday grilled by Parliament's Public Accounts (PAC) Committee on her tapped conversations with politicians, corporates, bureaucrats and journalists in connection with alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation. Radia, whose tapped phone conversations with politicians, corporates, bureaucrats, and journalists form a key part of the investigations into the 2G spectrum scam, is believed to have told the Committee...
11:05 AM, Apr 04, 2011
New Delhi: Phone tapping norms are set to become tougher. A committee led by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar has said the Central Board Direct Taxes and the Income Tax Department should not be allowed to seek phone taps, sources have told CNN-IBN. The committee has also recommended that the the finance ministry must first clear requests by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for phone...
05:22 PM, Mar 03, 2011
If a new proposal from the Cabinet Committee on Security is implemented, things will change, and your phone call will be directly on tap.
06:41 PM, Feb 18, 2011
New Delhi: Nira Radia phone calls, recorded for a Government probe, were leaked to the media, which led to uproar and loads of embarrassment. Even Amar Singh's phone calls were tapped based on a document with a lot of errors. Questions were also raised about safety of manual phone monitoring by service providers. If a new proposal from the Cabinet Committee on Security is implemented, things will change, and your...
05:55 PM, Feb 18, 2011
New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Security proposed new norms on phone tapping which put the onus of monitoring conversations on the government instead of service providers. The Committee has proposed a centralised hub for phone taps. The move follows the publication of the telephone conversations of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. There were also allegations on the government on tapping of over 1 lakh...
01:16 PM, Feb 18, 2011
Kolkata: BJP on Tuesday sought a clarification from the UPA government at the Centre on alleged tapping of over one lakh telephones across the country, describing it as a "cause of grave concern". Stating that this amounted to misuse of power, opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said "The government has to confirm that tapping is being done on consideration of security and also state how many phones are...
11:36 AM, Feb 15, 2011
New Delhi: Reliance Infocomm on Monday told the Supreme Court that whatever wiretap it had carried out on Rajya Sabha member and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's telephone was done strictly on the directions of the Delhi Police. The 21-page affidavit of Col (retd) AK Sachdeva, a nodal officer with Reliance Communication, said under the prescribed procedures, once they receive directions from the law enforcement agencies, they are duty-bound...
05:40 PM, Feb 14, 2011
New Delhi: The Central Government on Wednesday told the Supreme court that former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh's phone was tapping illegally and that no authorisation was given for the same by the Government of India. A bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly took strong exception of the illegal phone tapping and asked Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati to file an affidavit telling what action has been taken...
12:18 PM, Feb 02, 2011
Tech Toyz recaps the year gone by featuring some of the best shows of the year 2010. ...
07:07 PM, Jan 09, 2011
On Talking Point, Rajdeep Sardesai asks, 'Is corporate concern over phone tapping justified?' ...
11:20 PM, Dec 14, 2010
New Delhi: Hours after the Prime Minister spoke on phone tapping, on Tuesday, Senior BJP Leader LK Advani came out all guns blazing. Charging the UPA of being in the grip of lobbyists, he accused the PM of not knowing what was going on within the government. Quoting the Prime Minister's comments on looking for solutions for technology to prevent access of telephone conversations, Advani raised questions on the matters...
10:49 PM, Dec 14, 2010
She claims though she had been saying this for a long time, no one paid heed to it. ...
10:06 AM, May 03, 2010
The Home Minister has maintained that the UPA did not authorise any phone tapping. ...
12:05 AM, Apr 30, 2010
The issue had rocked Parliament on Wednesday. ...
07:28 PM, Apr 29, 2010
