Guwahati
Alleging that the Jharkhand police was snooping on former Chief Minister Champai Soren for the last five months, Assam Chief Minister and BJP’s election co-incharge for Jharkhand, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday suspected the possibility of the veteran tribal leader’s phones being tapped and even a plan to honey-trap him.
“We all know that Champai Soren is a Minister in the Jharkhand government. He is also an ex-Chief Minister. He has decided to join the BJP on August 30, but he is yet to resign and remains a Minister, but his own government has put him under surveillance,” Sarma claimed at a press conference in the State capital. “Champai had been put under surveillance five months ago, even before he was in talks with the BJP,” the Assam CM claimed.
“Champai Soren had come to Delhi a week earlier and spent three days. He went to New Delhi again via Kolkata on August 26. On both occasions, they stayed in the Taj Hotel, and both the times they were followed. On Tuesday, two persons were caught by Champai’s aide taking pictures and when confronted they initially said they were journalists, but later they admitted that they were Jharkhand Police’s Sub Inspectors posted in Special Branch. The SIs took the same flight and stayed in the same hotel,” Sarma alleged.
“They were handed over to Chanakyapuri Police Station there and Champai Soren has also filed an FIR,” Sarma said adding “whether the Delhi Police will arrest them or not, we don’t know as the SIs claimed to be on duty”. He, however did not share the names or photographs of the two officials as “they might have been involved in Naxal or other undercover operations”.
But the CM said the two SIs have claimed that a “person in Constitutional position” and the Special Branch chief, Inspector General Prabhat Kumar, had put them on duty to “track” Champai Soren. Terming it a “serious case of espionage”, Sarma said, “This is one of rarest case of surveillance in Indian politics, we will raise it at the highest levels.”
The Assam CM said it is also suspected now that Champai’s phones could be tapped and there might have been a plan to ‘honey trap’ him as a woman had also been meeting the two SIs. “We demand a thorough investigation into the matter,” Sarma asserted.
“The JMM-Congress claim to be the protectors of the Constitution. And here they are, intruding the basic right of privacy and life of a colleague of their own. Is Champai Soren a Naxal, an extremist,” Sarma asked.
