NEW DELHI: CBI 's attempt to tap a corrupt senior income tax official's telephone was sabotaged in just three days when a BSNL employee approached a private contractor who works both with the telecom service provider and the I-T department in an attempt to save the officer.Shocked by the turn of events, the CBI has initiated a probe under the Official Secret Act against Dhrubajyoti Ray, an IRS officer posted as joint commissioner in Silchar , Assam; Abhijit Das , BSNL deputy general manager; and Siddhartha Deb Roy , the private contractor.Suspecting Dhrubajyoti Ray of indulging in corruption, CBI had last year sent 'top secret' letters to several telecom service providers for mounting surveillance on three mobile numbers and a landline number used by him. CBI wanted "actionable inputs" on corrupt activities of Ray and his other colleagues in the I-T department.One of the surveillance requests was mailed to the BSNL office, Assam circle, at Pan Bazar, Guwahati, by the CBI superintendent of police Kolkata on November 23, 2016.The Assam circle office in-charge of BSNL forwarded CBI's request to alternate nodal officer Vivekananda Nath, deputy GM at Pan Bazar Telephone Exchange, Guwahati, the very next day, who in turn, on November 26, asked another deputy general manager, Abhijit Das, to put the landline number under surveillance, with a request, "Sir, please put the number 03842-260385 under interception on urgent basis as per attachment enclosed...request made by CBI. "Das, instead, made a call from his mobile to private contractor Sidhhartha Deb Roy asking him to come and meet in his office in the evening. This is when the entire plot unravelled. The agency conducted an enquiry for nine months before registering an FIR on Thursday under OSA, criminal conspiracy .

Source: Times of India September 02, 2017 00:33 UTC