Stalk-Gate: no investigation needed, writes woman's father

Ahmedabad: The young woman at the centre of a flaming controversy that has engulfed Narendra Modi was aware that she was being spied upon by senior Gujarat police officers, her father claimed today.

In a letter to the National Commission for Women, he urged against an investigation and said "whatever help was rendered "was based on his request,  and  was "in her own interest, safety and security, and here has been no encroachment on her privacy as sought to be made out." (Read the letter)

The Congress has alleged that the illegal espionage in 2009 was ordered by Mr Modi, who is running for Prime Minister. 

His party, the BJP, says the woman's father asked Mr Modi, who he knew well, to ensure his daughter's safety, a claim the man substantiated in today's note. 

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"I made a request to the Chief Minister to take steps in my daughter's safety," he wrote without specifying what sort of assistance he sought. 

Last week, 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.

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The Congress alleges that the "saheb" reference is to Mr Modi.

The BJP has said that the young woman, an architect, was being stalked by a bureaucrat named Pradeep Sharma, which provoked her family to seek Mr Modi's intervention.

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Mr Sharma, however, denies those charges and says he was suspended by the Gujarat government and jailed on fake corruption charges because he was aware of the woman's relationship with a top Gujarat politician. (Read)