Phone tapping in the history of Indian politics

Sharad Pawar, NCP

Tapped in April 2010 during talks with IPL chief Lalit Modi. Recorded conversations on deals struck during bidding process was allegedly used to pressure Pawar to seek Modi's ouster

Digvijay Singh, Congress

Tapped in February 2007 while talking to a Congress leader from Punjab, in his car along Sardar Patel Marg. The two were discussing candidates for the 2007 CWC elections

Nitish Kumar, Bihar CM (JD-U)

Tapped in October 2007 when he was on way from Bihar Bhavan to South Block in his official car and talking with a colleague on getting funds from the Centre. Kumar was using the phone of the then Bihar resident commissioner

Prakash Karat, CPM

Tapped in July 2008 when Oppn leaders were being eavesdropped upon to figure out their strategy on the Indo-US nuclear deal and the no-trust motion in Parliament

Overhearing off-the-Air

The off-the-air GSM monitoring device was brought to India in 2005-06 by then NSA M K Narayanan. Authorities are off the hook as the system does not tap a phone number. Instead, it intercepts signals between the phone and the tower and records them on a hard disk

How the device works

1. Device codenamed Fox is placed in car and can tap cellphones in 2km radius

2. Later, disk can be taken out and intercepts erased, no trail remaining