Sitting judge may probe 'Snoopgate' after Congress sharpens attack on Modi

New Delhi: Just as Priyanka Gandhi upped the Congress pitch in launching a direct attack on BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over allegations of unauthorised snooping in Gujarat, the UPA-2 government, in its last leg, is making an effort to go ahead with the setting up a judicial panel to probe the allegations.

If the UPA-2 government manages to appoint the probe panel, it means that the judicial panel will continue its probe even when the next government comes to power.

Top sources said the Union home ministry is planning to go to the Union Cabinet to tweak its earlier decision and, instead of a retired judge, appoint a sitting judge of a high court to head the panel this time, top sources said. The Union law ministry will simultaneously be writing to the Allahabad High Court to appoint a sitting judge to head the commission.

This fresh attempt by the Centre to set up a Snoopgate probe panel comes while the Lok Sabha elections are underway and less than a month left for the process to conclude.

Despite repeated attempts, the Centre had so far failed to get a retired judge to head the probe commission, as mandated by the Cabinet three months ago, leaving it in an embarrassing spot.

However, the government may need to consult the Election Commission this time. But officials insisted that since the setting up of the commission was announced prior to the model code of conduct taking effect, its move to appoint a panel now would not be legally untenable.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had recently attacked Mr Modi over the Snoopgate controversy while addressing an election rally. Mr Gandhi had said the Gujarat government has no regard for women as it gets their phones tapped and cautioned that giving Mr Modi the key to power would not be good for India.

Sources said the MHA may go to the Cabinet soon to tweak the contours of its earlier decision.
The terms of reference of the judicial commission were to probe alleged unauthorised snooping in Gujarat, attempts to access CDRs without authorisation in Delhi, including that of senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, and alleged unauthorised tapping in Himachal Pradesh.

Earlier this month, law minister Kapil Sibal had indicated that the Snoopgate panel would be set up soon and the name of the judge would be announced at the appropriate time.