Snooping row continues to spell trouble for Modi as more tapes emerge

New Delhi: The snoopgate row is continuing to haunt the Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as news portal Gulail.com has released a fresh set of tapes alleging that the matter was not limited to just Gujarat. According to the web portal, the Gujarat Police had tried to put the girl under surveillance in Karnataka, too, but that request was turned down by the latter as it did not fulfill the requirements of the Indian Telegraph Act.

The website has claimed that the junior level officers of the Gujarat home department in fact wrote to the government of Karnataka to put the girl under surveillance in the state.

In the new tapes top policemen of Gujarat are heard discussing the necessity to tab the phone calls of the girl at various locations.

The recent allegations by the news website has raised some serious questions:

- Why did the girl's father's alleged letter to the NCW claim she knew she was under surveillance?

- If it was to provide protection to the girl then why didn't the Gujarat Police meet her instead of tailing her?

- What kind of security threat did the girl have that such an elaborate security cover was provided to her?

- Whose orders were the under secretaries of Gujarat following in writing to the Home Secretary of Karnataka?

Earlier, dismissing the probe ordered by Gujarat government into the snoopgate as 'Modi Bachao Commission', the Congress had alleged that it is a concerted attempt to hoodwink the people.

Party spokesman Randip Singh Surjewala and Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza insisted that the Commission of Inquiry constituted by the Modi administration was a "shoddy cover up job".

The new twist in the snoopgate controversy comes at a time when Narendra Modi is hitting the top gear of his election campaign. The allegations of illegally surveilling a girl continues to embarrass Modi, but the only thing working in his favour is a reluctant Congress which is unsure of how to convert the latest snoopgate allegations into a political talking point.