IB breach in Pranab's office 'a joke': Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi, Jun 22: Leader of opposition, Sushma Swaraj called the whole issue of IB Breach in Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee's office 'a joke' and raised questions over multiple variations of the investigation agencies.

Pranab Mukherjee reacting to Sushma Swaraj's statement dismissed the whole issue, calling it 'bogus'.

Sushma Swaraj had earlier tweeted and said that the government was responsible and should justify their stand on the reports that the Finance minister's office was subjected to a security breach.

"In respect of the news item, the IB investigated into it and they found there is nothing," Pranab Mukhejee had said on Tuesday, Jun 21.

"Is it that the Government was spying on its own Finance Minister? Or is it a corporate house ?" Sushma Swaraj's tweet read.

Pranab Mukherjee in a letter dated Sep 7, 2010 asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order a 'secret investigation' into what he called a “serious breach of security" in his office - an attempt to spy on his office with surveillance material.

In the letter, he informed that the surveillance material was planted in 16 key locations of his office.

Pranab Mukherjee, who tried to urge the PM to order a probe through a letter also mentioned that no “live microphone" nor any sort of recording devices were found.

According to an investigative report published by the Indian Express, Mukherjee"s letter came three days after an unprecedented “electronic sweep" of the ministry"s VVIP chambers was conducted by a private investigators team brought in by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The CBDT reportedly never held such a counter-surveillance operation.

A senior Intelligence Bureau official was reported by the daily as claiming that these “adhesives" were a “sort of chewing gum" that was tested in a government forensic lab. The CBDT said that these adhesives were “planted" at critical places within the finance ministry and a closer examination discovered grooves on the surface that indicated that a few tiny devices could have been pasted and later pulled out.

"The Finance Minister may have his own compulsions of playing it down. The 'Chewing gum theory' is hard to digest," tweeted Sushma Swaraj.

OneIndia News