New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre and CBI over a petition accusing the former CBI director Alok Verma of illegally tapping National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s phone. The High Court has sought a reply from the Centre, inquiring the setting up of a Special Investigative Team to probe into the matter, as desired in the plea filed on the matter. The next hearing will take place on 26 March.

According to advocate Sarthak Chaturvedi, the petitioner, the phones of Doval and several other officers were tapped during the feud between former CBI Director Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao issued a notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the CBI, seeking their responses on the plea.

The High Court issued notices to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the CBI. “Respondents [MHA and CBI] need to respond to the serious allegations raised by way of public interest litigation,” the bench said, according to The Indian Express.

Chaturvedi has asked the High Court to constitute a Special Investigation Team to look into the alleged abuse of power by some CBI officers “for their ulterior motive”.

He has also claimed that a special unit of the investigating agency that handles phone tapping and technical surveillance was aware of the communications between Doval and Asthana during the latter’s row with Verma. The special unit has placed many numbers on technical surveillance and it is analysing call data records, he alleged.

The former CBI director was removed by a high-level panel headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 10.

(With Inputs from Agency)