Police should ask IB about phone tapping of judges: Kejriwal

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said police should ask the Intelligence Bureau (IB) whether judges' phones were tapped amid reports that Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma has written a letter to him regarding the matter.

A letter, purportedly written by Verma to Kejriwal seeking details about his allegations that judges' phones were being tapped, is doing the rounds on Twitter. Kejriwal tweeted his response to the letter: "Ask IB. They will tell u."

However, police didn't confirm the authenticity of the letter. "It might be a confidential letter and not many people might be aware about it," said a police source, without confirming the authenticity of the letter that is doing the rounds on Twitter.

The letter says that it's a serious matter that the chief minister is talking about. "As you are aware, phone tapping is an extremely serious matter and is not allowed without due authorisation after following strict procedures mandated under law. Therefore, your alluding to the matter raises serious concerns," the letter reads.

The letter asked the CM to inform them about the source on which he has based his allegations. "Under the circumstances, please let us know of any incident or case of phone tapping that you have referred to in the course of your speech. We would also appreciate if you could inform us the source on which you base your allegations so that appropriate action can be initiated in the matter," it said.

Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the Delhi High Court on October 31 in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Justice of India T S Thakur also participated, Kejriwal had claimed that during his meetings with judges he has "overheard them telling each other that they should not talk on phones because they could be tapped".

The Chief Minister claimed that when he told them the phones of judges cannot be tapped, "they retorted by saying that all phones could be tapped".

"I don't know whether it is true or not but there is a widespread fear. If it is true that phones are tapped then judges can be influenced...," he had said.