Arun Jaitley phone-tracking case: at his request, detailed investigation in two months

New Delhi: Seven months after it was confirmed that his cellphones were being monitored, top BJP leader Arun Jaitley has asked for a more detailed investigation by the Delhi Police to determine who wanted access to his calls.

Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi appeared in Parliament on Monday after Mr Jaitley moved a breach of privilege motion, alleging that his right to privacy has been violated.

In February, the police had arrested four men and said the ring-leader was a private detective named Anurag Singh. He allegedly bribed a constable to steal the password of a senior police officer which allowed access to phone records for Mr Jaitley's five mobile phones. The telecom operator - Airtel - became suspicious with the volume of requests for records, and complained to the Home Ministry, which then ordered the police to look into the case.

The police has now been given two months by the Ministry of Home Affairs to file a supplementary chargesheet which will look at how call records for 22 other people - some of them journalists and  politicians - were accessed by the gang.

The BJP has denied reports that the phones of Mr Jaitley and others were tracked at the request of a rival faction within the party. The phone-tracking took place for nine months before the party picked Rajnath Singh as its president.