In May,the Home Ministry,in its attempt to check unauthorised phone-tapping,directed all states to trace and hand over to the Intelligence Bureau all surveillance equipment with law-enforcement agencies or private firms. As of July-end,only two,the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Haryana Police,reported possessing off-the-air monitoring devices capable of quietly intercepting and monitoring voice and SMS traffic. This tardy response is despite the Department of Telecoms warning to equipment importers including law enforcement authorities,telecom firms,corporate houses and private detective outfits as early as last December to report them within 60 days to the local Telecom Enforcement,Resource and Monitoring Cells. According to the Department of Revenue Intelligence,there are over 1,100 GSM and CDMA tapping devices that were imported in the last three years alone. The MHA handed over the importers data to the DoT last October to account for the location,use and capabilities of the machines. When the DoTs February deadline lapsed,the Ministry for Home Affairs directed all states in May to trace and hand over all surveillance equipment. However,even that crackdown did not happen and an exasperated DoT has now recommended that FIRs be initiated against the defaulters. A list of such imported equipment was given to DoT by Ministry of Home Affairs,but no disclosure is reported even after our public notice. MHA may issue instructions to respective state police to initiate suitable action against such entities that are in possession of off-the-air monitoring equipment illegally, says a DoT letter of July 25. A government official,who is involved in the exercise,said that these passive interception machines have now been placed in the restricted list from the Open General Licence category and the DoT was in the process to amend Sections 20 and 25 of the Indian Telegraph Act to enhance the penalties for any violation. At present,the Act allows the government to seize the equipment and impose a fine of Rs 1,000 with imprisonment up to three years. In India,law-enforcement agencies can tap a phone without any permission for the first week but have to get the Home Secretarys approval for continuation on grounds of being required to prevent a major offence involving national security or to gather intelligence on anti-national/terrorist activities.
