New Delhi: Former IPS officer and ex-Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi, has been accused of misusing her official position to conduct surveillance on her daughter, according to an investigative report published by The News Minute and Newslaundry.
The report, titled ‘The Kiran Bedi Tapes: How Top Cop Used Delhi Police Officials to Surveil Her Daughter’, alleges that Bedi instructed Delhi Police officers to monitor her daughter’s personal life, including her movements and social interactions, without legal authorisation.
The investigation is based on leaked audio recordings of over 30 hours and hundreds of emails. The material accessed by The News Minute and Newslaundry reveals that Saina, Bedi’s daughter, was in a relationship with Gopal Suri, a married hotelier in central Delhi. The duo were using Kiran Bedi’s public profile to run a money-making visa scam.
Bedi, who was aware of the fraudulent scheme, disapproved of it and in one email, referred to it as “human trafficking.”
The emails suggest that, under Kiran Bedi’s instructions, the Delhi Police wiretapped the couple’s phones for at least four months in 2003. Additionally, a private detective agency was hired to shadow the couple for nearly twenty days.
The emails also indicate that five senior Delhi police officials were part of the familial conflict. Among them were Mukund Upadhye, Ujjwal Mishra and Ved Bhushan. Mishra and Bhushan, went on to become joint and assistant commissioners of the Delhi Police respectively, appear to play a prominent role in surveilling and relaying information to Kiran Bedi.
The recordings and emails raise serious concerns over the alleged misuse of state resources for personal matters and constitute a breach of ethical and legal standards.
Buried within the emails, was another striking revelation. According to The News Minute and Newslaundry report, one of the emails mentions a potential lead in the 2003 sexual assault of a Swiss diplomat in Delhi.
In an email sent on November 13, 2003 to Kiran Bedi on her official UN email address, Ved Bhushan gave her a 46-point update on her official UN email address. Towards the end, he wrote:
“One Important discussion took place between Gopal Suri and one Shaji about the rape case of Swiss girl diplomat and Gopal Suri was asking him whether any doubt is about Shaji or not. And I had already asked worthy DCP/SB Shri Mishraji [Deputy Commissioner of Police Ujjwal Mishra] about this and he is taking phone call details about this person.”
Rajender Singh, the well-known police officer who was part of the Special Investigation Team that led the probe into the sexual assault case, told The News Minute and Newslaundry that he was never made aware of this particular lead.
It remains unclear whether this lead was intentionally withheld or simply overlooked.
