BJP senior leader and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had blamed Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for “influencing” the probe into the phone-tapping case and demanded an independent probe by sitting High Court judge into the matter.

State BJP spokesman Ganesh Dutt, in his press communiqué has alleged that the Chief Minister was trying to influence the vigilance probe and there were serious doubts about the probe being conducted in a fair and impartial manner when Chief Minister, who also the Home minister was making utterances with a bias, he alleged.

He further stated that State government was carrying propaganda to malign BJP leader and irked by it, Dhumal has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to get the matter probed by a central agency.