Bengaluru, Sep 26, 2019-
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths on Thursday searched senior IPS officer Alok Kumar Singh’s premises in Karnataka and questioned him on the alleged phone-tapping of politicians and officials during the previous JD(S)-Congress coalition government between June 2018 and July 2019, an official said.
20-member CBI team searched Singh’s residence and office and interrogated him to ascertain on whose behest phones of politicians, rebel MLAs of then ruling combine and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with officials, including some police officers, were tapped, a state police officer told.
The CBI office here, however, declined to comment on the raid, saying the inquiry is underway and no details to share now .
Singh, a 1994 batch IPS officer, is the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of the Karnataka Stare Reserve Police (KSRP) since August 2, after a 45-day tenure as the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner since June 17.
The CBI took over the case on September 1 from the state special investigation team (SIT) after Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on August 19 asked it to probe the reasons for tapping phones, allegedly on former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s orders.
Kumaraswamy, however, denied ordering tapping of phones and expressed willingness to face any inquiry to clear his name.
Singh is one of the officials whose name figured in the audio tapes along with that of present city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao, who is alleged to have lobbied for the present post with a senior Congress leader (Ahmed Patel) and a power-broker Faraz Ahmed, the official recalled.
Singh is said to have given a pen-drive to Kumaraswamy, in which phone conversations of the Congress-JD(S) rebel legislators with BJP leaders and others were recorded before and after they resigned, which led to the fall of the 14-month government on July 23.
Soon after assuming office on July 26, Yediyurappa ordered the SIT probe into the phone-tapping on a complaint by some rebel legislators and his party leaders.
The snooping came to light after a part of the phone conversation between Rao and Ahmed got leaked to the media and was played in the locals news channels in July.
Name of former PWD Minister and elder brother of Kumaraswamy — H.D. Revanna — also said to have figured in the tapes in the context of transfer-posting of the IPS officers. (Agency)
