Jharkhand assembly speaker gets Rs.1.69 lakh mobile bill

Ranchi, Aug 13 (IANS) Jharkhand assembly Speaker C.P. Singh has sought a CBI probe to find out how his post-paid mobile bill swelled to Rs.1.69 lakh in just four days. The police have received a complaint and are probing the issue, a police official said.

Singh was on a parliamentary tour of Commonwealth countries from July 23 to Aug 2. After his return from the foreign trip, Singh got an SMS alert of Rs.3,000 bill Aug 2. The SIM card developed a snag and Singh applied for new SIM. The new SIM was issued based on the voter ID card.

‘I was stunned when I saw the SMS alert of Rs.1.69 lakh on Aug 11. CBI should probe the issue. Since the calls were made to foreign countries, CBI should take help of Interpol for investigation,’ Singh told reporters here Saturday.

According to sources in BSNL, a new SIM was issued to Singh. Singh, however, claimed that his SIM was not functional for days from Aug 6-10.

The BSNL authorities have handed over the case to the state police and its vigilance department to look into the issue.

‘Cloning of SIM is not possible but we are looking into all aspects of the case,’ an official of Ranchi BSNL told IANS.

The maximum calls were made to four international numbers. As per bill details, the total on Aug 6 was Rs.4,253, which swelled to Rs.25,715 on Aug 9 and on Aug 10 and 11 it further swelled to Rs.1,17 lakh and Rs.1.69 lakh, respectively.