NEW DELHI: The Janata Dal Wednesday demanded an apology from Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar for his false allegations against former premier V.P.Singh that his telephones were tapped when he was a Janata Dal leader.

Janata Dal spokesman and Member of Parliament Jaipal Reddy told reporters here the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report had proved conclusively that Chandra Shekhar made a false complaint about the tapping and bugging of his telephones against V.P.Singh.

Chandra Shekhar allegation that his telephones were tapped when he was an MP had sparked off a furor last year.

Reddy said Chandra Shekhar claims he does not want to dwell into the past because it stinks for him. We are prepared to dwell into the past because we are proud of the past he said.

He said the second aspect of the CBI report was that telephones of many politicians were tapped during the regime of Rajiv Gandhi. He said Gandhi was getting even the telephones of his ally Ms. Jayalalitha and cabinet colleague K.C.Paint tapped

Reddy said former Karnataka chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde did not order tapping of telephones yet he took constructive responsibility for it and set a noble example by resigning from the chief minister ship.

I would like to know as to what Mr. Gandhi intends to do by way of atonement and expiation he queried.

Telephones of a number of Indian political leaders including ministers and Members of Parliament were tapped but there was no evidence that the telephones of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar were intercepted when he was a Janata Dal MP.

This was contained in a report of an investigation purportedly carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and made available to the press by Janata Dal MP Rajmohan Gandhi. Gandhi said it constituted the report of the special investigation group of CBI which went into allegations made by Chandra Shekhar in April 1990 that all his telephones were tapped.

Neither the file nor the documents available in intelligence bureau nor those collected from Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (the telephone network) or from other agencies like the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) show that any of the three telephones installed at the residence of Chandra Shekhar in New Delhi’s south avenue was ever under interception the report said.

Article extracted from this publication >> March 8, 1991