Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SP)
New Delhi, Dec 2: The union government has given ten central agencies the power to intercept telephones. These agencies include Central Bureau of Investigation, enforcement directorate and the Intelligence Bureau.
The agencies will get more teeth with the expected commissioning of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), a powerful intelligence gathering mechanism meant to tackle terror threats, by the end of 2020. NATGRID happens to be a project undertaken at an expenditure of Rs 3,400 crore. It was cleared when P Chidambaram was the home minister. A need for such a mechanism was felt after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. The project that was limping was given impetus by current union home minister Amit Shah who recently held a meeting to review progress of this project.
Home minister Amit Shah
NATGRID will be able to pool date on immigration entry and exit, telecom, individual tax payers, people undertaking air travel, credit card and financial transactions including banking, train travellers and others and provide intelligence information.
Minister of state for home, G Kishen Reddy, had recently said that central or state government enjoy the power to intercept, monitor or decrypt or cause to be intercepted or monitored any information emanating from any computer resource or internet in the interests of the sovereignity and integrity of the country. He had said that this power is vested as per section 69 of Information Technology Act, 2000.
The power to intercept information have to be approved either by the union home secretary or home secretary of the state, Reddy had said in a written reply to a question. The agencies which have this authority are Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, National Investigation Agency, Research and Analysis Wing, Directorate of Signal Intelligence and Delhi police commissioner. The home ministry has clarified that the power to intercept is in consonance with the provisions law, rules and standard operating procedures.
When information shared on WhatsApp by people and agencies had been intercepted by using Israeli software, it was alleged that the government had approved this interception. The home ministry had dismissed the allegations and termed them as false, besides seeking information from the company.
The intelligence agencies found that movement of US terror suspect, David Headley's movements in the country had not come to the fore for lack of real time information system. Headly reportedly had provided information and videos of terror targets in the country to Laskhar-e-Toiba, which engineered 26/11 attacks.
NATGRID will have its data recovery centre at Bengaluru and its headquarters at New Delhi is expected to be completed shortly.