Salman

Mumbai, July 20: Salman Khan’s phone was indeed tapped by police, and they did it legally, the Maharashtra government told the Assembly today.

Whether the voices on the tape belong to Salman and Aishwarya Rai will be known after the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh, files its report.

The actor’s phone was tapped on the suspicion that he had links with gangster Abu Salem, deputy chief minister R.R. Patil said. The crime branch was tipped off that calls had been made to Salem from a particular mobile phone on August 27, 2001.

The police obtained the requisite permission and placed the phone number under surveillance from August 28 to October 25, 2001.

“The phone number belonged to Salman Khan,” Patil told the House. “The surveillance was stopped after the valid period.”

Purported transcripts and audio clips of the tapped conversation ? between a man addressed as “Salman Khan” and a woman he referred to as “Ash” ? were reported by the media last week.

Aishwarya was understood to be Salman’s girlfriend at the time when the conversation took place.

The man is heard abusing and threatening the woman and her family with physical harm if she failed to participate in a show organised by Salem.

He boasts of links with underworld dons like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel and Salem, and claims he “had full information about every one of the bomb blasts” ? an apparent reference to the serial explosions that killed some 250 people in Mumbai on March 12, 1993.

Patil did not explain why the police never acted on the claims and threats made in the course of the tapped conversation. The minister’s statement was silent on why knowledge of the tape was withheld from the courts that tried the Mumbai blasts case and the Bollywood-underworld nexus.

The minister, however, announced that additional commissioner of police K.L. Bishnoi, who heads the economic offences wing, and assistant commissioner Trambak Yengde will investigate “Salman’s” purported claims. He rejected the Opposition BJP’s demand for the probe to be handed over to the state CID.

The government, after verifying the tape, cellphone printouts and witness’s statements, will seek legal opinion on whether a man’s drunken rantings to his girlfriend would stand as evidence in a court of law.

The police have so far recorded the statements of Salman, Rai, Pradeep Sawant (who was deputy commissioner when the phone was tapped) and four other police officers, including “encounter specialists” inspector Pradeep Sharma and sub-inspector Daya Nayak.

“We are not satisfied by Patil’s statement,” said BJP leader Gopinath Munde, who had demanded an “independent” inquiry by the CID.