In an apparent disregard for a woman's privacy, the Gujarat police allegedly snooped on a young woman from Bangalore in 2009-- on the orders of Amit Shah, then Gujarat home minister and close aide of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Five years
However, Modi has maintained silence and restricted himself to saying this at a recent Bangalore rally. "In the past few days, the attack on the BJP and me have become acerbic."
Taking on the Congress, BJP's national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said. "Congress and Cobrapost are violating privacy of the woman. How could such classified information leaked? Telegraph act has been violated. Congress has no locus standi to
"I think our men are not watching properly,(sic)" Shah said. And after sometime, he called Singhal to say: "Today they are going out for a meal in a hotel. Sahib received a phone about this. So watch out as she is going with someone. It is the boy
What's even more interesting is how the Saheb, as mentioned in tapes, had appointed independent spies to stalk the woman. That was evident in tapes as Shah was heard complaining to Singhal about his team's inefficiency. On August 9, Shah told
That wasn't convincing enough for the Congress and JD(U), former BJP ally, which is seeking Modi's resignation. Congress leader Manish Tiwari demanded to know if the woman was protected at the behest of her own father, why wasn't the threat to her
Now, the BJP is rubbishing the Cobrapost report saying the woman was tailed as per the request of her father. After the snooping controversy raged, a press note by the woman's father was circulated, in which the father says he had long-standing
Call it coincidence. Sharma without the knowledge of his being tailed, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 2011, alleging that the Gujarat government had falsely framed him in corruption case and that was related to CM Narendra Modi's
Another person who came under Shah's radar was senior IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, then Municipal Commissioner of Bhavnagar. That was because he was said to have been meeting with Madhuri. His phones were tapped too. (source: Cobrapost)
While BJP president Rajnath Singh said there is no question of doing a rethink on our Prime Ministerial candidate even if a thousand baseless allegations of this kind are made against Narendra Modi, minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi analysed it this way
Congress is quick to call Saheb as Modi. On November 17, two UPA ministers - Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Jayanthi Natarajan - launched a direct attack on Modi, saying the phone conversations indicated snooping was ordered by him.
Amit Shah's 'Saheb' was keen on knowing the men she was meeting. Not just her phone, but that of her family and friends were tapped too. Who the Saheb is is not officially revealed though. (source: Cobrapost)
The police even kept tab of her movements when she visited her ailing mother in Ahmedabad. When she boarded a flight, a cop was put on flight so that the cops didn't miss out on her. (source: Cobrapost)
She was followed everywhere-- shopping malls, restaurants, ice-cream parlours, gyms, cinema halls, hotels and airports. What she did, whom she met, where she went-- She was stalked every second. (source: Cobrapost) (Pic for representational purpose
When she was tracked, Madhuri, an unmarried woman, was in Bangalore while her parents lived in Gujarat. (Pic for representational purpose only)
Who is this mystery woman? Though the woman has been reportedly identified in the phone conversations, Cobrapost preferred to keep her identity a secret and called her Madhuri.
The conversations recorded between August 4, 2009 and September 6, 2009, reveal the desperation of Amit Shah's 'Saheb' to know every details about the woman.
Cobrapost says that Amit Shah acted at the behest of a person, whom he addresses as Saheb, and ordered Gujarat IPS officer G L Singhal to stalk the woman and give him real-time update on her movement. Singhal, who is currently out on bail in Ishrat
Exposing the ugly episode were media portals Cobrapost and Gulail.com, which have revealed the phone conversations between Shah and the cop incharge of snooping G L Singhal. But what is yet to be made public is the identity of the woman in question
Snooping: Of Bengaluru's mystery woman and Narendra Modi