DRI snooped on CBEC chiefs family,tapped his sisters mobile

Govt files confirm tapping; a year later,finance ministry yet to act against errant officials

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More than a year after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) denied that it had wrongly tapped the mobile phone of the sister of its boss Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman S D Majumdar highly confidential government documents accessed by The Indian Express have confirmed the snooping did indeed take place,and the finance ministry is yet to act against the officials who were responsible.

Reports about the embarrassing incident emerged in June last year when the furore over the alleged bugging of then finance minister Pranab Mukherjees office was yet to die down. The DRI denied the incident,even though sources in the home ministry said that permission for such snooping had been given indicating that investigating agencies could be misusing their powers to intercept phones despite repeated directions from the Supreme Court to ensure that all tapping is carried out as per norms.

There has been suspicion in some quarters that rivalries within the organisation may have caused the DRI to put Majumdars sisters phone under surveillance. Others feel that the entire episode may have just been a genuine mistake.

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In a June 23,2011 note which details the incident,Majumdar had written that the then DRI director-general,R S Sidhu,personally visited Majumdars office within a fortnight of taking over as DRI chief in April. He was accompanied by three top DRI officials. During this meeting,Sidhu informed Majumdar that some irregularities in phone-tapping by the Delhi zonal unit of DRI had taken place and that some of Majumdars relatives and acquaintances may have been put under electronic surveillance.

According to the document,the DRI first verified telephone numbers provided by Majumdar and within two days confirmed that the mobile phone number of his sister,Dr Sushmita Gupta,a professor in the Department of Ecology of Assam University in Silchar,had been under surveillance since February 2011. Majumdar also noted on the file that some of his acquaintances in Delhi and Kolkata were also under similar surveillance.

Recording his anguish over the incident,Majumdar on July 5,2011 wrote in the file: The integrity of the system is at stake…today it was Chairmans sister; tomorrow it should not be relative of another senior officer (sic). Majumdar writes that Sidhu had months earlier written to him about some deviations in the functioning of the DRI and had recommended the removal of the Delhi zone DRI Additional DG,R K Sharma.

After the snooping of his sisters phone was discovered,Majumdar took it up with the then revenue secretary Sunil Mitra,seeking action against errant officials of the Delhi zone of the DRI. Majumdar also detailed the snooping incident in a three-page note which has been seen and signed by Mitra and his successor and had been forwarded to Pranab Mukherjee.

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I would be failing in my duty if I do not speak of the systemic remedy for the malaise…good faith and confidence are reposed on the investigating agency by Home Secretary in granting permission for such surveillance…I would suggest that DG DRI inquires into the surveillance procedure in its entiretyparticularly in respect of the Delhi Zonal Unit. This is necessary since the integrity of the system is at stake, Majumdar wrote in that note.

Mitra,who has since retired,confirmed the communications linked to the controversy. First of all,I was not in the loop when authorization (for tapping) was given. Revenue secretary was introduced to the system only after the Niira Radia incident and until then the home secretary gave the authorization, he told The Indian Express.

The DGRI reports to the board and when the Chairman put up a report about this incident,I had told him to go ahead and take action and that Revenue (dept) will give any assistance for investigation concerning any retired officials. I had informed the finance minister about the incident, Mitra added.

On October 28,2011,days before he retired,Majumdar wrote another internal note for his successor mentioning the phone-tapping incident and that action against the errant DRI officials was awaited. Majumdar is posted as the ombudsman in the board after his retirement.

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In the files,Majumdar also lists how permission for telephone interception is granted by the home secretary on the basis of the mandated intelligence agencys certification. In the case of my sister,an objective reading of the subscribers record would reveal that the subscriber is a professor in Assam University in Silchar and therefore cannot have any links with smuggling activities, he wrote.

Reached for his comment,Sidhu said there was no confirmation of the incident within the DRI,while Majumdar said he did not want to talk about the controversy.

Vijayalakshmi Sharma,Sidhus predecessor during whose tenure the tapping process is believed to have been initiated,also said she could not recollect anything. I retired about two years ago,I dont recollect anything and unless I see some files I cannot say anything. If there was any issue my department would have asked me and they have not done anything so far.