Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that her phone was being tapped for the past four years.
Asked whether her phone was being tapped, Banerjee told reporters that it was "nothing new. My phone is being tapped and I am saying this has been happening for the past four years".
She claimed though she had been saying this for a long time, no one paid heed to it. "But when someone complains from Delhi (about phone tapping), there is an uproar."
Though Banerjee did not elaborate on the issue, Trinamool Congress leader and Union minister Mukul Roy had claimed last month that both landline and mobile phones of Banerjee were being tapped by the Left Front government of West Bengal.
Besides, several other Trinamool leaders' phones were also being tapped, he had alleged.
The phones of prominent political leaders like Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Congress leader Digvijay Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat have been tapped by the UPA government, a magazine claimed in an issue last month sparking an uproar.
Home Minister P Chidambaram had last week stated in Parliament that the government had not authorised telephone tapping. He also said further inquiries were being made into the allegations made by the magazine. PTI
