Thiruvananthapuram: Vigilance DGP Jacob Thomas has not made any charge that his phone was tapped or his e-mail was leaked. “He just mentioned a newspaper report and expressed his concern. It is just a natural anxiety anyone would have felt,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the Assembly on Monday. However, he also announced that a Crime Branch probe into the issue had been initiated. The ‘Kerala Kaumudi’ report on October 19 had said an officer of ADGP rank had leaked Mr Thomas’s phone and e-mail Vigilance DGP Jacob Thomas has not made any charge that his phone was tapped or his e-mail was leaked.
“He just mentioned a newspaper report and expressed his concern. It is just a natural anxiety anyone would have felt,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the Assembly on Monday. However, he also announced that a Crime Branch probe into the issue had been initiated. The ‘Kerala Kaumudi’ report on October 19 had said an officer of ADGP rank had leaked Mr Thomas’s phone and e-mail messages. The chief minister said that there was no official request to intercept Mr Thomas’s messages but was silent about the possibility that illegal tapping could have been carried out. The Opposition, however, said that Mr Jacob Thomas was no ordinary person but a DGP, and his “anxiety” was either an attempt to seek publicity or founded on the knowledge that he was under surveillance. The Opposition staged a walkout when Speaker P. Ramakrishnan refused an adjournment motion on the wire-taping issue.
Section 5(2) of Indian Telegraph Act allows the state government to keep tabs on the messages of individuals in times of any public emergency or in the interests of public safety. But first, permission has to be secured from the home secretary. “No such request has been received to observe Vigilance DGP Jacob Thomas,” the chief minister said. Mr Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who moved the adjournment motion, said that the issue reflected the division at the top echelons of the police force. He called for a central probe into the tapping issue.
“The Vigilance DGP uses a BSNL phone. So to check whether the wire-tapping had actually taken place, BSNL officials will have to be questioned and the service provider’s server has to be examined too. Only the Central Intelligence Bureau has the authority to do this,” he said and added: “For this very reason, the DGP probe that has been announced is mere eyewash.”
The chief minister did not respond to Mr Radhakrishnan’s observation but lavished praise on the Vigilance DGP. “Jacob Thomas is a conscientious and efficient officer who goes about his job with a sense of purpose. But there is a general perception that moves are afoot to interfere in his work. The government’s stand is that such an officer should not be weakened,” he said.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said that it was hard to believe that an officer of DGP rank would express concern on the basis of a newspaper report. “He obviously knows the procedures involved in the interception of messages, that it requires the permission of the home secretary,” he said and added: “Either he has a fear psychosis or he has clear information that the home secretary has ordered that he be put under surveillance.” He also noted that the controversy erupted just when a probe was sought to be initiated against former industries minister E.P. Jayarajan.
