Sena’s Sanjay Raut says Goa leaders’ phone being tapped: ‘Nation wants to know’

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday launched an attack on the BJP as he alleged the tapping of phones of “several opposition leaders in the states where elections are being held”. “In this country, the opposition leaders – specially in the states where elections are being held – are being targeted with tapping of phones. Yesterday, we got this huge information about tapping of phones of Goa leaders,” the 60-year-old leader was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

In a post on Twitter, he wrote: “The way phones of Maharashtra leaders were tapped,same Pattern of Phone surveillance is being replicatd in Goa. Calls of @SudinDhavalikar,@VijaiSardesai@digambarkamat & @girishgoa are being tapped. Nation wants to know : Who is the ‘Rashmi Shukla’ of Goa behind this tapping? (sic)” Former Goa deputy chief ministers Sudin Dhavalikar and Vijay Sardesai and ex chief minister Digambar Kamat were tagged in the tweet. Another leader who was tagged was Girish Chodankar.

He also referred to IPS officer Rashmi Shukla who has been accused of illegally tapping phones of Maharashtra leaders when she was heading the State Intelligence Department (SID). Cases have been filed in Mumbai and Pune amid the accusations. The Congress had last week said that BJP leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis should also be probed in the case.

The BJP has not yet reacted to Sanjay Raut’s comments.

Goa voted in a single phase on February 14 for its 40-member assembly. The results will be out on March 10. Votes will also be counted on the same day for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur.

The allegations of surveillance of phones have come to the fore again after the Pegasus snooping row last year had triggered a huge political row.