In a big blow to the Congress government in Chhattisgarh, the Supreme Court slammed it for tapping the phone of senior IPS officer Mukesh Kumar. The bench has asked the state government to file a detailed affidavit with reasons for tapping the phone.
New Delhi: Supreme Court slammed the Chhattisgarh government following phone tapping allegations and said 'no privacy left for anybody'.
The Chhattisgarh government is accused of tapping the phones of senior IPS officer Mukesh Gupta and his family members.
The apex court said that it was taking a serious note of this and asked the state government to file a detailed affidavit explaining who ordered to tap the phone of the senior IPS officer. It also asked the state to file reasons for doing so.
The bench of justices including Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee questioned, "What is the need to do like this? No privacy is left for anybody. What is happening in this country," the bench said adding, "can privacy of somebody be violated like this? Who ordered this? File a detailed affidavit".
Supreme Court also expressed disappointment over the fact that an FIR has been filed against the advocate who is representing the IPS officer in this case in the Supreme Court. The top court has stayed the probe against the lawyer. No coercive steps be taken against him till further orders from the Supreme Court, it said.
Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani is representing IPS officer Mukesh Gupta. Meanwhile, the court also asked Jethmalani not to politicise the issue by dragging the name of Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in the matter.
Previously in the statement, the IPS officer had included the name of Chhattisgarh chief minister as one of the respondents.
The name of the chief minister shall be struck off from the memo of parties in the petition, the court said.
(With PTI inputs)
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