NEW DELHI: The illegal attempt to procure the call details of BJP leader Arun Jaitley has brought to fore the unholy nexus among police, detectives and city's bigwigs, including politicians and industrialists.
The subversion of official procedure to procure Jaitely's CDR (call details records) has attracted an angry response from the BJP, and led many to marvel at conspirators' audacity to target an A-list politician. The scam has also reinforced fears of invasion of privacy. But sources in the police say that obtaining a person's CDR was never a big deal and that the arrested policeman Arvind Dabas is probably just one of the many in the department who do this for making a fast buck. It is only that they had so far managed to remain under the radar.
They say sneaking in that one extra number into a bundle of numbers being sent officially will never be a difficult task for the policemen and will go undetected even by the designated officer of the rank of ACP sending the official request. The list has only numbers, and no names are mentioned. In the current instance, the alleged conspirators were not caught until they put Jaitley's name against his number: a mistake that alerted the nodal officer of the cellphone service provider and resulted in the unraveling of the crime.
What helps such snooping is the unstated liaison of police personnel with private detectives like Anurag Singh, who is emerging as the key protagonist in Jaitley CDR saga. Sources confirmed that Delhi Police and central intelligence agencies had in the past engaged services of Singh, a trained doctor who graduated from a reputed medical college in the city but never practiced medicine because of his fascination for technology. It is recognized that the association, which started more than a decade ago because Delhi Police had lacked sophisticated know-how to track information technology-savvy criminals at the time, may have helped the detective familiarize himself with the loopholes in the official procedures, besides providing him the opportunity to befriend officers.
Sources say that the serious risk of assault on privacy of unsuspecting citizen is aggravated by the trend among some intelligence officials to outsource the dirty part of the job, including illicit surveillance on political opponents of the government and others, to private detectives whose inventory of espionage equipment, sourced from Israel and other places, can match official capabilities.
This is why there is skepticism that the Jaitley CDR scam will put an end the menace. Sources say that the adverse publicity may at best lead to a break until the police 'complete' their probe. After that it will be business as usual though possibly with one big difference: the private players and their collaborators in police may hike their rates citing heightened risk. "A job which could be done for Rs 2,000-Rs 5,000 could escalate to Rs 20,000? It can fluctuate depending on how stringent the process is made. But if they are saying they will put an end to this, they must be kidding. If they make the process difficult, it's their probe which will get hampered," says a source.
Officially, private detectives cannot access call records of any person. It's only the owner of a number who can access the call details of his number by asking the service provider. Otherwise, police are the only authority who can do so, that too for the limited purpose of an ongoing investigation..
However, the reality is different. Call details, being an important tool for investigation, used as much by police as private detectives. In fact, the first thing that a private detective does after landing a case is, just like a policeman, is to seek CDR. These are in great demand also among businessmen who either hire private detectives or rely on 'contacts' among police to track their rivals.
And the process is simple. That one number that the client is interested in is sneaked in amid various numbers which are officially sent to the mobile company from the e-mail id of the nodal officer, an officer of the rank of ACP. The ACP, however, seldom uses the email-himself, leaving the job for head constables and juniors like, as Jaitley case showed, Dabas.
The CDR of a number is an elaborate list divided into several columns like, the calling number, the called number, time of call, duration of call, location at the time of call, the instrument used to make the call and etc.
However, there are no names. Even the investigators probing a particular case are not aware about who owns the number. And that's the catch. "We get the CDR and then begin investigations. Each number is analyzed and a person is assigned to go through each and every number on the CDR list and call up the suspicious. Sometimes all the numbers on the list may get called up. They speak to the person; ask him about his identity and other questions. Those who emerge as "persons of interest" are summoned for detailed questioning. The CDR of those who may evoke more suspicions are obtained and that yields investigators further leads," a source says.
An officer says that the fact that identity of persons whose CDR are sought remains unknown until the first stage, leaves a big gap in the procedure to be exploited by the nexus of resourceful private detectives and cops, greedy, compromised as well as regime-loyalists. For example, on November 20, two offices — the Special Staff (November 20) and Vasant Vihar police Station (November 29) — sought call details of Jaitley's number's during the Ponty Chadha case as his number had figured in Hardeep's call records. Neither knew that the number belonged to the BJP leader: On December 3, even the crime branch asked for the number's details. The CDR were scrapped as soon as the identity was ascertained.
Private detectives argue it's not all about money making, but it comes along with it. "If a businessman approaches me to find out the details/activities and friend circle about a man who is going to get married to his daughter, we will use his CDR to check his antecedents. It is crucial for us. And since we don't have access to it, , it s obvious we will need to seek help from our friends in the police. And why not? After all, they seek our help too. What do you think Anurag, who has been arrested by the special cell, did in the past? He has helped the sleuths in the cell so much and so many times but he is paying for it now," says a south Delhi-based detective.
The private players also remain confident that the illegal practice will continue. "Do you really think the cops can end this? Everybody will be back in business in a couple of months. The ACP will have jobs other than asking his men about explanation and requirement of each and every number whose call details are being procured," says a source.
