Karunanidhi orders probe into phone tapping reports

Chennai, Apr 15 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has ordered a probe into the phone tapping of State Chief Secretary L K Tripathy.

He announced the setting up of an inquiry commission headed by a retired High Court Judge after protests from the opposition rocked the State Assembly on Tuesday.

The excerpts of conversation between Tripathy and a senior police official about the Kodanadu estate case against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader Jayalalithaa were published by the media. "The Government wants to find out how the contents of the conversation between two officials were published. We are ready to probe the matter and the inquiry commission will submit the report before the House," Karunanidhi said.

"We should see whether the contents were anti-national or illegal or unethical in nature. But there is nothing of that sort," he added.

Citing media reports, he said "phone tapping could be done even with the help of a cell phone thanks to the technological improvement."

In a statement on Monday, the Government had dismissed the media report on the telephone tapping as "false and wrong".

ANI