CBI searches at ex-Bengaluru top cop residence in phone tapping case

CBI searches were underway at the residence of former Bengaluru Police Commissioner Alok Kumar in connection with alleged phone tapping of politicians and bureaucrats during the tenure of the Congress-JDS government, officials said Thursday.

The Karnataka government led by B S Yediyurappa had announced a CBI probe after disqualified JD(S) MLA A H Vishwanath, who served as the party's state president and turned rebel, accused the H D Kumaraswamy dispensation of tapping phones and spying on more than 300 people, including him.

The central agency has taken over the investigation from cyber-crime wing of the Bengaluru Police and registered a case against unidentified people in August in the matter, officials said.

"It has come to the notice of the government that there are apprehensions that phones of several ruling and opposition political leaders, their relatives, and other government officials have been intercepted in an illegal unauthorised unwarranted manner," the letter entrusting the probe to the CBI said.