Allegations #Essar Group accused of tapping VVIPs, politicians & rivals’ phones: Reports

#Mumbai : Phone tapping  allegations of nexus with politicians, bureaucrats and journalists, Essar Group finds itself in yet another controversy.

A complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a Delhi-based lawyer alleges that the Group, between 2001 and 2006, allegedly tapped several phones of VVIPs, including current Cabinet ministers, corporate leaders and many bureaucrats and PMO staff of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India Samvad and  The Indian Express reported on Friday. The development comes at a time when a PIL has been filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation seeking a probe into Essar’s nexus being used for business gains.

Among the list of names, whose phones have reportedly been tapped include Mukesh and Anil Ambani, ministers Praful Patel and Ram Naik, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Amar Singh , among others.

Who monitored the phone conversations?

Suren Uppal, a Supreme Court lawyer, claims to represent an Albasit Khan, former head of security at Essar, who allegedly supervised the activity.

Keeping track

Handwritten diaries, time logs helped keep a track of these alleged intercepts.

According to Uppal’s complaint, Essar’s Prashant and Ravikant Ruia had told Khan about his role. The complaint adds that Ruias told Khan, “that since their company was already a telecom licensee for cellular operations under M/s Hutchinson Essar, the company is required under its statutory obligations to support the government investigations by intercepting and tapping such phones which are under Government surveillance and thus assigned the responsibility of recording and providing the recording conversations to the management of the company…”

The names

Corporate leaders: Mukesh Ambani, Tina Ambani , IDBI Bank MD,  and other top officials from the firm

Bankers: PP Vora, ex-chairman, IDBI Bank, KV Kamath, CEO & MD, ICICI Bank, Lalita Gupte, ex-joint MD, ICICI Bank.

Politicians: Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, Praful Patel, Ram Naik, Home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, MP Amar Singh

Other names that have come up in conversations include Piyush Goyal, Kirit Somaiya, Jaswant Singh, Subrata Roy, Amitabh Bachchan, PMO officials Brajesh Mishra and NK Singh

Modus operandi

According to an Outlook report, tapping was carried out from the ground floor and basement of Essar House in Mumbai and from the company’s guesthouse in New Delhi. He was allegedly given dozens of cellphones, recorders, cassettes etc as infrastructure to conduct this operation.

Officials who have been named in the complaint reportedly used to create special mobile SIM cards or interceptor SIM cards to tap the conversations.

Caution notice

Uppal sent a caution notice, dated March 2, 2016, to Essar Chairman Shashikant Ruia, Prashant Ruia, Ravikant Ruia and Anshuman Ruia. The notice adds that Khan had handed over hundreds of audio cassettes having many intercepted conversations.
“I want the Government to investigate these illegalities even if Albasit Khan is no longer with me. Eventually, I want the apex court to set up a probe team for the case,” Uppal told The Indian Express. Reports India Samvad and Indian Express,