Jairam Thakur Alleges Snooping Of Residence By Drone, Himachal Chief Minister Denies

Leader of Opposition in Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Jai Ram Thakur, on Friday alleged in Vidhan Sabha that his official residence here was under surveillance and said a drone took four rounds and almost reached his doors and windows.

Raising a point of order during the question hour, Thakur said when he enquired about the drone, it came to his notice that the drone was being operated from the residence of the Shimla superintendent of police (SP) located nearby.

He expressed serious concern over movement of drone and raised strong objection and cautioned the officers "not to cross their limits".

Mr Thakur alleged that his telephones were being tapped and earlier also security personnel were deployed near his house in plain clothes to check "who was coming and going". This was intrusion into his privacy, he added.

Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania said he has taken cognisance of the matter and will look into it.

Refuting the allegations after the question hour, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu asserted that no surveillance was being done by drone and said he would write to the central agencies, ED and CBI to get the information whether they were doing it and get the matter investigated.

Mr Sukhu said his government did not believe in spying but was concerned about the security of the leader of opposition (LoP) and if required, security would be provided by police and not drones. In case any official was found involved in phone tapping, strict action would be taken, he added.

Dissatisfied with the reply of the chief minister, Mr Thakur said the police was involved in it and was detaining BJP MLAs in police station for eight hours. On their way back, they were being recalled from midway, he alleged, and demanded an enquiry against the concerned officials. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)