The ‘Snoopgate’ scandal on the Indian cricket administration seem to be getting murkier by the day. It is now coming to broad daylight that the decision to hire the UK-based security and surveillance company Page Protective Service sometime between 2013 and 2014 to spy on certain ‘high profile individuals’ was counter-intelligence measure on the part of some leading cricket administrators to monitor and eradicate a serious hacking threat during the spot-fixing investigation conducted by Justice Mudgal Committee appointed by the Supreme Court.
A BCCI insider said a posh London hotel had been rented for close to two years, solely to hack emails and phone records of some prominent and influential individuals in India and overseas.
The source who is related to the development said without pointing fingers at anybody in particular, “This London office had professionals working on a 24×7 basis on laptops and computers, looking to lay their hands on any shred of data they could. And this kind of hacking wasn’t restricted to just the BCCI. If this were to be thoroughly investigated, it would open a can of worms. Of course, BCCI was one of the victims.”
However, BCCI has set up a two-member committee to probe into who authorized the hacking in the London hotel. Sources said that the private data hacked during this period got leaked in the media and cricket circles, politics and business fraternity. So nevertheless it may have a far-reaching consequence if left in the wrong hands. “It goes far beyond cricket administration. If the truth comes out, there can be serious implications,” said the source.
It was believed that the Page Protective was hired to counter-intelligence measure to deny access to BCCI mandarins’ personal information to Supreme Court appointed panels started investigating spot fixing, said the source
The BCCI mandarins also pointed out that the acrimony between sacked IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and former BCCI chief N Srinivasan wasn’t just restricted to the war of words fought on TV, print and social media. “Some crucial information was leaked and there was a need to find out how. If I’m the BCCI president and you’re the secretary, and I’m writing an email to you, how can it land up with someone else who wasn’t marked on it? Either of us is leaking it or someone is sourcing it illegally,” said a senior cricket administrator.
Meanwhile, the UK-based surveillance company admitted that BCCI had indeed hired its service. Sanjay Patel, who was the secretary of BCCI during the time spying told the present set of board administrators that he needs to be given access to documents and emails from the days of his tenure so that he could help two-member committee understand the reasons to hire the security firm. “A request has been initiated within the BCCI after Patel asked for access and it has been forwarded to the secretary, Anurag Thakur, who needs to give the approval,” a highly-placed source said. “Mr Patel says he doesn’t remember anything off-hand so we’re giving him a fair chance to give his explanation.”