Arun Jaitley Case: Arrested pvt detective facing trial in Amar Singh phone tapping

NEW DELHI: Anurag Singh, a private cyber expert-cumdetective arrested by the Delhi Police on Tuesday in connection with the attempt to seek call detail records of Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, is also facing a criminal trial for the illegal phone tapping of former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh in 2005.

The Delhi Police Special Cell, which is probing the present case, had arrested Anurag in 2005 too after finding that he had contacted Amar Singh and some media houses to sell the illegally tapped telephonic conversation records of the former SP leader. In the present case, four persons have been arrested and Delhi Police suspects there may be some more MPs whose call record details (CDRs) could have been procured by the accused. Police constable Arvind Dabas is said to have played a key role in the whole incident.

Delhi Police had on Monday told a court that there was a “higher level of conspiracy” that may also involve the country’s security in the alleged attempt to retrieve Jaitley’s CDRs. Dabas was arrested last week for allegedly using an ACP’s computer and e-mail ID to send a request to a mobile service provider seeking information on CDRs of the senior BJP leader.

However, a cross-check by the telecom operator called the bluff and Dabas was arrested. He is said to be close to two Uttarakhand BJP leaders and Delhi Police may question them to get to the bottom of the matter, a source said.

Jaitley has so far not lodged any official complaint in the matter, but the arrest of Anurag has intrigued the case further. Police sources said Anurag was claiming during interrogation that he was asked by certain persons to get Jaitley’s CDRs and promised help in return in the trial he was facing in the Amar Singh case.

BJP has condemned the ‘unauthorised surveillance’ on its leader and has been demanding home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s clarification on who ordered the collection of his call details. BJP president Rajnath Singh has termed the issue as “serious” and demanded that all those involved in the incident should be brought to book.