New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his key aide Amit Shah are continuing to feel the heat in the snooping row. The Congress has now said that the surveillance was done at Modi's behest.
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh tweeted, "Snoopgate of Gujarat, why is no one talking about the violation of Telegraph Act and the IT Act? It is Modi where the buck stops, not at Amit. Even Amit Shah has confessed it was done at 'Saheb's instructions. Modi has kept Home with him since 2002!"
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has said that it doubts the authenticity of the letter written by the father of the woman who was spied upon. "You cannot presume that we are disregarding the father's feeling. First of all the father has not personally come, nobody has personally come to the commission. Yes, we are doubting the authenticity of the letter for the time being," said NCW member Nirmala Prabhawakar in a debate with IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai.
Legal experts say it was a blatant misuse of the state machinery in violation of the law. "This story that Mr Jaitley has come out with namely that the father has written a letter and the girl has consented, that's absolutely without any substance. That doesn't answer the question as to why the entire state machinery was mobilised for private purposes. The father cannot file a complaint on behalf of the daughter, an adult girl. If the girl had filed a complaint, it must be recorded, on that the home secretary of the state is required to reply, the CM has no powers at all to do it," said senior lawyer Dushyant Dave.
The NCW has asked the Gujarat government to probe the alleged snooping charge against Shah. Even though the girl's father wrote a letter saying that the girl was aware of the alleged case, the NCW called it a case of official stalking and send a notice to Gujarat government seeking clarification as to what prompted the action in 2009.
"Normally police do it when there is a proper record that somebody's life is under threat. There is some kind of suspicion on the issue," said NCW member Nirmala Samant.
The commission questioning the veracity of the father's letter has provided ammunition to the Congress with Law Minister Kapil Sibal calling for the removal of Narendra Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate. "I have always said that BJP should re-think on Modi and sooner or later it will be done," said Sibal reacting to the controversy.
The BJP, meanwhile, denied any wrongdoing by Shah. "When the lady and her father are themselves saying that this was a protection at our own request for some specified reasons where is a question of probe in this," said BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
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