Activist Alleges Phone Tapping
Deccan Chronicle
K.P. Sethunath
Kochi: Human rights activist Thushar Nirmal Sarathy has submitted a petition to the State Home Secretary and Director General of Police seeking action against the Mangalam Dam police in Vadakkumcherry, Palakkad district, for tapping his phone.
Sarathy, president of the Kochi-based Janakeeya Manushyavakasa Prasthanam, stated that the Mangalam Dam police had been tapping his mobile phone ever since he had attended a meeting at AmbittanTharissu near Vadakkumcherry, held in protest against illegal quarrying. The meeting was organized by the local people on December 30 last year.
Sarathy, an advocate, has sought to know from the Home Secretary and the DGP whether they had instructed the police to tap his phone and if so, the reasons for such an instruction.
“I came to know of the tapping when two of my friends received calls from the Mangalam Dam police asking them about my antecedents and their connections with me. When they enquired how the police had got their numbers, the police replied that it was from the call data of my telephone”, Sarathy said.
The police action was a violation of the fundamental right to privacy, said P.A.Pouran, state president of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties. “The action is part of intimidating human rights activists involved in struggles taking place at the grassroots level”, he added.
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