CBI mulls legal options

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The CBI is contemplating legal action against YSR Congress leaders for “unauthorised tracking” of CBI joint director J.D. Laxminarayana’s phones and using the call details to malign the senior official and the investigating agency.

According to sources, CBI officials in Delhi have taken the decision to start legal proceedings against leaders of the party, who accused the CBI joint-director of selectively leaking information to a section of the media, leading to Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s arrest. While the party did not reveal the “source” of information, YSRCP spokesperson Mr Ambati Rambabu on Thursday said they were ready to submit the call details to the President and Prime Minister, who they would meet by the end of this month.

YSR Congress leaders have raised suspicion over what they called a large number of calls being made between Laxminarayana and one Ms Vasireddy Chandra Bala. But their cellphones were found switched off. The two have also not issued any clarification or statement on allegations made by YSR Congress leaders. Sources said Ms Chandra Bala, who works as project manager in a software firm and lives in Kukutpally here, was Mr Laxminarayana’s batchmate in Regional Engineering College, Warangal. The two subsequently participated in some functions organised by social service institutions, such as Lead India 2020, the sources added. The police suspect some BSNL staff were involved in giving out Mr Laxminarayana’s call details. While BSNL is the service provider for both his cellphones, a source said the CBI top officer uses a third number, which was not in public knowledge, for calls related to investigations.

Use of call lists ‘unauthorised’
Though the call details of CBI joint director V.V. Laxminarayana’s phones were obtained by YSR Congress leaders ‘unauthorisedly’, the party leaders are tight-lipped about revealing their ‘source’ of information. They said it was upto the investigating agencies to disprove it after a probe.

Sources in BSNL reveal that YSR Congress party leaders have relied upon information obtained in an ‘unauthorised manner’. Assuming that Laxminarayana talked to somebody named Vasireddy Chandrabala, this is not going to establish any link; nor are the investigations going to be affected.

According to guidelines from DoT, the service provider (here, BSNL) has to provide data whenever an investigation officer — not anybody else — sought details about a particular cell number. The guidelines authorise an officer of the rank not below an SP at the district level and DCP rank official working with the Hyderabad City Police to submit a requisition to the service provider. The Supreme Court put a bar on providing data to any Indian citizen under the Right To Information act.

When contacted, YSR Congress party spokesperson Ambati Rambabu said, “We have no objection if Vasireddy Chandra Bala talks to her classmate and friend Laxminarayana any number of times, but we suspect Chandrabala in turn also talked to the MD of a Telugu daily which has been carrying stories pertaining to the CBI investigation. This is our objection.”