Snoopgate: Hearing on plea to file FIR against Narendra Modi adjourned

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court today adjourned till Monday the hearing on an IAS officer's plea seeking filing of an FIR against BJP leader Narendra Modi and others in connection with the alleged snooping scandal.

The scandal revolves around a woman-architect, who was allegedly subjected to illegal surveillance by Gujarat Police.

Hearing the plea by Pradeep Sharma, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Justice G R Udhvani had earlier asked him to exhaust other alternative remedies for justice before moving the High Court.

Justice Udhvani had suggested the applicant to go to a Magisterial Court before approaching the HC.

Sharma's advocate Amrish Patel today told the HC he will submit some judgements of the Supreme Court related to jurisdictional norms on filing FIR. Following this, the HC fixed March 31 for next hearing.

Sharma had filed a petition on March 20 before the HC seeking a direction to police to file an FIR against the BJP's PM candidate and others in connection with the scandal.

The senior bureaucrat had earlier approached Gandhinagar Police with a request to file a first information report, but his plea was turned down.

Sharma then sought Gujarat DGP PC Thakur and Gandhinagar SP Sharad Singhal's intervention in the matter, but his efforts did not yield any result.

Last year, investigative news portals Cobrapost.com and Gulail.com claimed, on the basis of taped conversation, that then Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, a close aide of Modi, had ordered the illegal surveillance of the woman at the behest of one "Saheb" in 2009.

The 1984-batch officer, facing half a dozen criminal cases in the State, has claimed he was being victimised by the BJP Government in Gujarat for his knowledge of the "intimacy" shared by Modi with the architect.

On November 26, the Gujarat Government appointed a two -member judicial commission, headed by Justice (retd) Sugnaben Bhatt, to probe the scandal.