Aurangabad / Mumbai, Mar 5 : NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said on Saturday that with an offence of illegal phone-tapping being registered against former intelligence commissioner Rashmi Shukla, the people of Maharashtra would like to know at whose behest was this illegal tapping of phones being done. Did somebody from the previous BJP-led government give instruction to Shukla to tap the phones of leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi, he said in a press statement. Since this happened at crucial juncture when the new Maharashtra government was taking shape in 2019, this is a gross violation of the Indian Telegraph Act, he said. There was no national emergency or a security threat of any kind to warrant the need of phone tapping which also requires prior approval of the central or state governments, he pointed. “We suspect that the phones were tapped illegally to source critical information regarding the MVA for the BJP,” added Tapase. VKB SS 1718