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Tapping issue takes a new turn

Special Correspondent

Amar Singh says he has sent legal notices to TV channels

NEW DELHI: The issue of phone tapping of Samajwadi Party general secretary and spokesman Amar Singh took a new turn on Thursday with some television channels claiming that they had received audio CDs of the contents of the tape.

Speaking to mediapersons at Parliament House, Mr. Amar Singh said he had sent legal notices to the channels restraining them from airing the "so-called contents" of the tape as the matter was sub judice. He said he had also petitioned the court seeking directions to the Delhi Police on how the tapes were duplicated to the media. "The tapes could be fabricated, doctored or concocted. I don't know what is in them. In any case, audio tapes are not admissible in a court of law."

The channels said they were seeking legal opinion on making the contents public as the matter was in the Supreme Court. However, what emerged from an interview aired on one of the channels with Mr. Singh and the allegations made by it was that the CD "Amar Singh Ki Amar Kahani" contained conversations of Mr. Singh with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh, industrialists, bureaucrats and film actresses. The channel claimed that the CD contained an alleged conversation between Mr. Singh and Mr.Yadav involving a Allahabad High Court Judge.

Mr. Singh denied the allegation saying neither he nor Mr. Mulayam Singh had spoken to or approached any judge in any case. He also denied that there could be anything objectionable in his conversations with the persons named by the channel. He charged the Delhi Police and the Congress with "leaking" the CDs.

The phone tapping controversy was first raised in December when Mr. Mulyam Singh Yadav revealed during a press conference that Mr. Singh's phone was being tapped.

The Delhi police later arrested persons working for a private detective agency for their alleged involvement in the phone tapping.

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