Probe Modi in the snooping row, Guj IAS officer tells SC

NEW DELHI: Suspended Gujarat IAS officer Pradeep Sharma on Saturday demanded a CBI probe against state Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his aide and BJP General Secretary Amit Shah for the alleged snooping on a woman architect.

In an application filed in the Supreme Court, Sharma requested the court to take cognisance of audio tapes aired by news portals on November 15 claiming these contained proof of how the Gujarat government had tried to frame him in “frivolous” cases. He also demanded that all cases against him be transferred to “an independent agency like CBI” beyond Modi’s control.

The application said that the transcripts of taped conversations between then minister of state for home Shah and IPS officer GL Singhal of the Gujarat anti-terror squad revealed that the architect and Sharma were placed under surveillance at the behest of a person referred to as “Saheb” by Shah, adding that “Saheb” was none other than Modi.

Sharma later told CNN- IBN that he believed that he was arrested because Modi feared that he had some information about Modi’s alleged relationship with the woman architect.

“Sometime in the year 2008, I had got an anonymous letter forwarding a link. The link led to an obscene clipping involving the architect which I was shocked and surprised to see. Not realising that my phones were bring tapped, I had spoken about it over the phone,” Sharma told the channel.

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