BJP leader and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who has been blamed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for indulging in mass tapping of phones when he was at the helm, has demanded a judicial probe into the issue.

Prem Kumar Dhumal said that these accusations have no relevance and accused Virbhadra Singh for defaming him in public by raising such issues. He said that the government should conduct an enquiry on phone tapping by a sitting judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Yesterday Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has leveled charges against former CM and accused him for subverting democracy by snooping into the privacy of his political opponent, bureaucrats and media persons.

However, Dhumal rubbished all these allegations and said the permission for tapping the phones was given by the home department, and the Chief Minister’s Office had nothing to do with it. He said that the phone tapping is normally carried out by the police to check anti-social activities and he denied his role in it.

Prem Kumar Dhumal advised Singh to order a judicial probe to investigate the entire phone tapping episode.