File photo of Narendra Modi with close aide Amit Shah (right).
The Gujarat government has formed a Commission of Inquiry to look into the allegations of snooping and stalking of a woman architect by senior police officials of the state in 2009.
The two-member panel, comprising of retired High Court judge Sugna Bhatt and senior bureaucrat KC Kapoor, has been asked to submit its report to the state government within three months.
Earlier this month, two news websites, cobrapost.com and Gulail, said that the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI has audio tapes that allegedly reveal then Home Minister Amit Shah instructing police officers to tail the woman at all times, as insisted upon by "saheb" or boss.
The Congress alleges that the "saheb" reference is to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The Congress today took the controversy over the alleged stalking of the woman to the President, alleging that the expansive surveillance was ordered by the BJP's candidate for Prime Minister in 2014 elections.
"93,000 calls were intercepted. The situation has revealed that it was a reign of terror and Gujarat was a police state," said a senior Congress leader.
Last week, former Gujarat IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who was allegedly snooped upon by the Modi government, approached the Supreme Court seeking an inquiry into the scandal.
Mr Sharma, in his affidavit, alleged that he was victimised by the Modi government as he was in the know of the relationship between the architect and the Chief Minister.
Mr Modi feared that he was in possession of a CD which could have damaged the Chief Minister's reputation and hence corruption cases were framed against him, Mr Sharma alleged in his affidavit.