Soon after chief minister handed over the luxury watch to Karnataka state assembly speaker Kagodu Thimmappa on Wednesday, the leaders of opposition hit the government with another controversy, claiming that their phones were being tapped.
According to The New Indian Express, opposition leaders including JD(s) president HD Kumaraswamy and, former chief minister and BJP leader Jagadish Shettar alleged that Siddaramaiah was behind the phone surveillance.
The issue reportedly went to such an extent that a senior Congress leader asked Kumaraswamy not to call from his official number, reported TNIE.
“My phones are under surveillance after I started tracing the genesis of the expensive Hublot wrist watch. I would have got more details on who were pressuring Sudhakar Shetty, whose house was burgled in the city, if my phones were not tapped. Among the stolen articles was a watch resembling the controversial Hublot,” Kumaraswamy said.
They said that phones of leaders have been tapped ever since Congress party came to power. The JD(S) president said that the phone surveillance increased after the watch controversy got media attention, reported The Hindu.
“Gulam Nabi Azad, who was in charge of the Congress affairs in Karnataka in 2014, cautioned me against calling him from my official number,” he said.
This is an aggregated report from The Hindu and The New Indian Express