New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi`s close aide and former minister of state for home Amit Shah was on Friday accused of misusing his powers and police machinery for illegal surveillance of a young woman in 2009.
The allegations were made at a press conference here along with release of over half-an-hour of tapped telephonic conversations, purportedly between Shah and Gujarat IPS officer GL Singhal, which two investigative portals Cobrapost and Gulail claimed have been submitted before CBI in the Ishrat Jahan murder case.
However, the two websites also said "at this point of time, Gulail and Cobrapost have no means to independently verify these charges."
While the tapped conversations that purportedly took place between August and September 2009 do not mention Modi, the BJP`s Prime Ministerial candidate by name, the websites said that "listening to the conversations leaves no doubt that the people involved in the operation knew the `saheb`," at whose behest the alleged snooping was being carried out.
It was claimed by the two portals that Modi had met this woman--an architect from Bangalore whose parents were in Gujarat--in 2005 during a public function of Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation.
The girl`s father, however, said in a statement that his daughter, who was based in Bangalore, had come to Ahmedabad when her mother was to undergo a surgery. She was required to commute at odd hours between the hospital and a nearby hotel which was a matter of concern to him.
He had, therefore, orally requested Modi, "with whom we have long-standing family relations" to "take care" of her. He was shocked that some "vested interests" were approaching the media in this regard.
BJP sources declined to react immediately, saying that the girl`s father had already issued a statement.
