Senior cops in dock for selling call data

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Sikh youth take part in a turban-tying competition to mark Hola Mohalla in east Delhi on Sunday. — AFP

Two senior Delhi police officers are in the dock for allegedly procuring call detail records of some “influential” personalities from telecom operators in Mumbai for investigations and selling them to a private detective agency.
A team of Mumbai police is likely to arrive in Delhi on Monday to question the two assistant commissioners of Delhi police whose names have cropped up during investigations into a racket involving the sale of mobile call details by a detective agency based in Bandra, Mumbai. Four private detectives have been arrested by the Mumbai police in the case.
Top police sources revealed that the two officers have “misused” their positions to obtain the call records of some influential people from telecom operators, which included some Bollywood personalities and politicians in Mumbai. The details were then sold to the Bandra-based detective agency, which had a number of clients. When contacted, a Delhi police spokesperson said that he was not aware of any such case. Sources, however, revealed that the Mumbai police team is likely to question the two officers on Monday.
The Mumbai police had recently arrested four private detectives on charges of illegally obtaining call records of people which were sold to clients for `25,000 to `1.5 lakhs, depending upon the status of the persons whose call records were sought. During investigations, the Mumbai police had found that three communications recovered from a laptop of detectives were received from the official mail address of the Delhi police officers.
The police then approached the telecom operators to verify the antecedents of the persons who obtained the call records. “While one service provider has named two Delhi police officers, the response of the other service provider is awaited,” a source said.