CBI raids ex-Bengaluru police commissioner Alok Kumar's residence, interrogates him in Karnataka phone tapping case

A team of 20 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials on Thursday conducted a raid at the residence of Bengaluru’s former police commissioner Alok Kumar in the city’s Adugodi area and interrogated him on the alleged phone tapping incidents during HD Kumaraswamy’s 14-month tenure as chief minister of Karnataka. The story was broken by NEWS18 KANNADA: 

ಫೋನ್ ಟ್ಯಾಪಿಂಗ್ ಪ್ರಕರಣ; ಸತತ ಮೂರು ಗಂಟೆಗಳಿಂದ ಎಡಿಜಿಪಿ ಆಲೋಕ್ ಕುಮಾರ್ ವಿಚಾರಣೆ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಸಿಬಿಐ ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳು#PhoneTapping #AlokKumar #CBI https://t.co/hdcohj8tnI

— News18 Kannada (@News18Kannada) September 26, 2019

“The central agency has taken over the investigation in the matter from the cybercrime wing of the Bengaluru Police and registered a case against unidentified people in August,” officials said. “It has come to the notice of the government that there are apprehensions that phones of several ruling and opposition political leaders, their relatives, and other government officials have been intercepted in an illegal unauthorised unwarranted manner,” the letter entrusting the probe to the CBI said.

Karnataka: A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is present at the residence of Bengaluru's former Police Commissioner, Alok Kumar. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/epYc3CHe6N

— ANI (@ANI) September 26, 2019

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The current BS Yediyurappa-led government announced a CBI probe after disqualified JD(S) MLA AH Vishwanath, who served as the party’s state president and turned rebel, accused the Kumaraswamy dispensation of tapping phones and spying on more than 300 people, including him, according to Outlook India. During 2017-2019, Kumaraswamy had allegedly ordered tapping of phones of senior IPS officer Bhaskar Rao, several MLAs and political leaders. Names of senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel and former PWD Minister HD Revanna of the JD(S) had also figured in the leaked phone tapes. The phone-tapping controversy came to light when an alleged phone conversation was leaked to the media.

Kumar, who was then in-charge of Central Crime Branch, had taken the initiative to tap phones on the direction of Kumaraswamy. After Yediyurappa gained the chief ministerial post, he transferred Kumar from the post of Bengaluru Police Commissioner and ordered CBI inquiry into the phone tapping. According to CBI, Kumar took the phone calls recordings in a pen drive and gave a copy to Kumaraswamy when his government was at stake due to defection of many MLAs to BJP and a resignation spree. The CBI also lodged an FIR on the request of Karnataka government against unknown public servants and private persons. With inputs from PTI