Wednesday, January 4 2006 09:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In the wake of claims of phone tapping by Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, Delhi Police yesterday (Jan 04, 2006) summoned officials of private telephone operators to work out a strategy to plug loop holes in their working which could lead to unauthorised interception of phone calls.

Nodal officers of private telecom players, including Reliance Infocomm, Airtel, Hutch, had a meeting with Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh and senior police officials at the Police Headquarters here to devise a mechanism to ensure no illegal interception of telephones takes place.

Sources said telecom operators were also asked to furnish details about requests received by them to intercept communication of their subscribers in the past six months.

One Bhupendra Kumar, who ran a private detective agency in south Delhi, was arrested last week in connection with allegations of tapping of phones of Amar Singh. Kumar had allegedly facilitated interception of Singh's telephone using forged letters purportedly written by senior government and police officials.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officers of private telecom companies are expected to meet Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today as follow up of the discussions with Delhi Police.

Police yesterday arrested Kuldeep, who worked with Reliance Infocomm, in connection with the phone tapping case.

The Samajwadi Party leader had claimed his telephone number "39565414", for which Reliance Infocomm is the service provider, was being tapped by the Central Government.