Maharashtra government accuses Devendra Fadnavis regime of snooping on opposition leaders' phones

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Friday accused the previous state government, led by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, of having used government machinery to illegally snoop on the phones of erstwhile opposition leaders. Deshmukh added that the cyber cell of the state police department has been directed to conduct a probe into the matter.

"The cyber cell of the Maharashtra police has been asked to look into the various complaints of snooping/phone tapping that came in during the previous government," Deshmukh said while speaking to reporters in Mumbai. He added that the complaints of snooping had come especially during the time of the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress) political coalition.

If this allegations turn out to be true in the probe, the situation would beg for serious attention since it would mean that the Devendra Fadnavis regime used state machinery to illegally spy on opposition leaders.

In this context, veteran Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had earlier in the day claimed that he had, in fact, been warned of being snooped on during the previous regime but had cared not for it since, he claimed, he had nothing to hide. "Your phone is being tapped. This was told to me by a senior BJP minister earlier. I told him whoever wishes to listen to my conversations is free to do so. I am a disciple of Balasaheb Thackeray, I don't do anything secretly," Sanjay Raut wrote in a tweet.

What's more, the complaints also point to the fact that some officers, during the Fadnavis regime, had allegedly been sent to Israel to study a new snooping software. The probe will also look into this allegation

"There is no doubt that the previous dispensation has misused the government machinery to tap the phones of leaders from opposition parties," Home Minister of Maharashtra Anil Deshmukh said, adding, "There were reports that some officers were sent to Israel to study the snooping software. We are finding out who had gone to Israel and whether there was an official engagement."

However, Devendra Fadnavis later on Friday denied these allegations, saying, "Phone-tapping of opposition leaders is not the tradition of Maharashtra. Our government never gave such an order. The present state government is free to do any probe by any agency. Even Shiv Sena leaders were a part of the state Home Ministry then."