‘RAW can intercept calls, e-mails’

India: Amid a raging controversy over its plan to screen social media, the UPA government has added and notified the external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to the list of eight agencies to intercept phone calls, e-mails and data communications.

Highly placed government sources said the RAW's addition to the list is aimed at giving it a legal cover for intercepting phone calls, e-mails and voice and data communication domestically. This is the first time that the R&AW, since it was formed in 1967, has been authorised to tap phone calls. The sources said the notification was issued by the Home Ministry recently.

The move came nearly two weeks after The Hindu carried a series of write-ups, working in collaboration with WikiLeaks, on communications intelligence capabilities.

The sources said the RAW would not be able to deploy its communication interception equipment at international gateways to snoop on all forms of data, be it international telephony emanating from India or any form of electronic data including e-mails.

The sources pointed out that investigators had tapped conversations of terrorists, who attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008, getting instructions from their handlers in Pakistan.

“For such an evidence to be admissible legally, it was felt that it must be given legal sanctity,” the sources said.

The Hindu