Was Sushma Swaraj a Victim of BCCI Phone Tapping? IPL Case Petitioner Appeals for Probe

New Delhi: As the controversy of former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi's travel documents snowballs, questions are being raised whether External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has fallen victim to a London-based security agency that had tapped the phones of BCCI (The Board of Control of Cricket) members earlier this year.

The controversy broke out after the British media published some leaked e-mails of British parliamentarian Keith Vaz that named Ms Swaraj, which indicated that the minister had assured UK to allow him to travel to Portugal. Lalit Modi had been under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate over the IPL betting racket.  

Aditya Verma of Bihar Cricket Association, the petitioner in the IPL case, said there was a "strong possibility of the mails having leaked from the London agency". He has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi today to order an inquiry into the mail hacking by the Central Bureau of Investigation, arguing that it is a matter of the country's internal security.

The phone tapping allegedly took place ahead of the BCCI general elections in March.

On April 26, the members of BCCI disclosed at the working committee meeting that their e-mails and conversations being hacked into. The BCCI even paid a bill of Rs 14 crore from a security agency in London, Team Fusion, ahead of the election.

There were reports that N Srinivasan, former BCCI president, had ordered the phone tapping to keep a tab on his colleagues. In the election, Jagmohan Dalmiya won.

No police case has been filed, and the matter is being internally probed. On May 4, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur told NDTV, "I have written to the former office bearers to tell us if an agency has been hired and guide us in this respect." But there has been no response from former BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel yet.

"Srinivasan has been spying on several officials, everyone knows his equation with Lalit Modi," Mr Verma told NDTV.

"It is possible that the agency spying on Modi came across these mails and leaked them. I have written to the Prime Minister to have this investigated properly," Mr Verma added.