Mulayam claims phone-tap proof; forgery, say police

The Congress said the Samajwadi Party was making ‘‘imaginary allegations’’ and his claims were ‘‘irresponsible and wild.’’

Interestingly, Mulayam also invoked former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to back his view that individuals have a right to pursue their private lives and distributed copies of the Hindi translation of Disraeli’s views on private lives of public figures.

While Mulayam claimed that he had heard the tapes but refused to disclose the source, the Delhi Police, which is accused of tapping Amar Singh’s phone, moved swiftly to file an FIR and visited the office of Reliance Infocomm, the service provider of Amar Singh’s land line.

Mulayam alleged that the entire phone-tapping exercise was being masterminded by 10, Janpath under the supervision of Sonia Gandhi’s private secretary, Pulok Chatterjee, a UP-cadre IAS officer, and Ranjit Narayan, Joint Commissioner, North Zone (Crime), Delhi Police. He said 10, Janpath had prepared a strategy to release the contents of the tapping to newspapers and TV channels in January 2006.

He also said the recent sting operations on MPs were also masterminded by the Intelligence Bureau to deflect attention from the Volcker report.

He said Amar Singh, Mulayam himself, Akhilesh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav were being targeted in spite of him announcing a development package of Rs 251 crore plus power for Sonia’s constituency, Rae Bareli.

He said phone-tapping was part of a larger conspiracy to destabilise his government and in an implied reference to UP Governor TV Rajeswar and added that even constitutional functionaries were involved in the operation. He said Amar Singh’s Lodhi Estate residence phone number, 011-39565414, had been attached to the cell number of Ranjit Narayan, 9811358986, for tapping. Stating that Principal Secretary, Home, Delhi, R Narayan Swamy had ordered the Delhi Police officer to tap Amar Singh’s phone, the Chief Minister said the first written directive was sent to Narayan on October 22, 2005 and the second on November 9, 2005. Mulayam said Swamy had instructed Narayan to conduct the phone-tapping exercise till February 6, 2006 for gathering the details of the deliberations between himself, Amar Singh and other leaders. He said he had told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil of the undercover operation.

He said Patil had informed him that the letters, purportedly written by Swamy, were forged. Mulayam added that these leaders may not be aware of the conspiracy.

Paul said that the Centre had never written any letter to Delhi Police for tapping Amar Singh’s phone. ‘‘No such tapping has been done by Delhi Police. Documents furnished by Mulayam Singh Yadav as proof in this regard are forged and an FIR has been lodged,’’ Paul said.

The FIR—filed under charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy—says that ‘‘some unidentified persons have entered into a criminal conspiracy to forge some documents that have been displayed by the Uttar Pradesh CM.’’

Officers of the Special Cell of Delhi Police visited the office of Reliance Infocom to collect details. Reliance infocom spokesperson in Mumbai declined to comment.

Paul says the letters Mulayam talks about and the other documents are forged. ‘‘I along with the Principal Secretary (Home) have conducted an inquiry into this but there is no truth to the charges. Joint CP (Special cell) Karnal Singh will now investigate the present FIR to get to the root of the conspiracy,’’ Paul added.

The Home Ministry clarified: ‘‘The documents available with Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh and with the telecom provider cited as the basis of such monitoring appear to be a clear case of forgery.’’

The FIR has been lodged under charges of Section 420 (cheating), Section 467 (forgery) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy).