Ex-judge to probe Gujarat snooping case, says Shinde

Shimla, May 2 (IANS) The central government will soon appoint a retired judge to probe whether Gujarat Police snooped on a woman at the behest of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Friday.

The government will "very soon appoint a retired judge" to probe the snooping case, he told reporters here. "The union cabinet has passed a decision to appoint a judge on the snooping case...the matter is in process," Shinde said.

Opposition parties alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Modi ordered the woman's movements to be tracked.

Shinde said: "I am scared that if a chief minister can put a women on surveillance, what will happen to the women of the country if he becomes the prime minister."

Asked if appointing a judge at the moment would be in violation of the Model Code of Conduct, he said: "It is not. The decision has been taken far earlier before the code of conduct began."

Besides, Shinde said the central government has sent a National Investigation Agency (NIA) data collection team to the site of the twin blasts on a train in Chennai that left a woman dead.

He said the Tamil Nadu government was probing Thursday's incident in which 14 people were also injured.

"The Tamil Nadu government refused to get the matter investigated by the NIA as it claimed that the state police officials are sufficiently efficient to investigate the incident. Nevertheless, we have sent a data collection team of the NIA," he said.

The home minister said 10 battalions of central forces have been dispatched to Assam where at least 10 people were killed and four others injured when suspected militants opened indiscriminate fire in two villages Thursday night.