Goan leaders' phones being tapped: Sena leader Raut

Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut alleged on Saturday that many Goan leaders' phones had been tapped. The alleged victims include MLA Sudin Dhavalikar, MLA Vijai Sardesai, former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and state Congress President Girish Chodankar, Asian News International reported.

Raut told reporters that most of the leaders whose phones got tapped are

from Opposition in the country and particularly those in the states where elections are going on. The Congress had revealed to the public the big Goa phone tapping case only the day before, he said.

The same thing had happened in Maharashtra, too, and it is on record. What is going on in Goa has a similar pattern to what happened in Maharashtra. He said that It was a matter of coincidence that the leader of Maharashtra was in charge of Goa. Phone tapping might be going on in Uttar Pradesh, and Raut is worried about Akhilesh Yadav, he said.

Goa went to the polls on February 14, and the counting is scheduled on March 10 along with several other states.

Raut's tweet read, "The way phones of Maharashtra leaders were tapped, the same pattern of phone surveillance is being replicated in Goa. Calls of Sudin Dhavalikar, Vijai Sardesai, Digambar Kamat and Girish Chodankar are being tapped. The nation wants to know: Who is the 'Rashmi Shukla' of Goa behind this tapping?"

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil had accused former Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla of tapping the phone of many leaders such as Nana Patole, Bachchu Kadu, Sanjay Kakade and Ashish Deshmukh.

The state government had constituted a three-member high-level committee to probe the issue, which found that phone tapping happened under Rashmi Shukla. Later, an FIR was registered against him on the Maharashtra phone tapping case under section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act.