The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday carried out searches at the residence of former Bengaluru commissioner Alok Kumar in connection with phone tapping case. The searches were conducted almost a month after the CBI registered a case of alleged illegal phone tapping in Karnataka.

The case was recently transferred to CBI by the state government.

Kumar had been made the commissioner out of turn by the then HD Kumaraswamy government. However, when the BS Yediyurappa-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power, he was transferred immediately. He is is currently heading the Karnataka State Reserve Police as ADGP.

There were serious charges on Kumaraswamy government by disqualified MLAs, BJP and Congress leaders that their phone calls were being allegedly tapped.

CBI officials arrived at the residence of the former Bengaluru Commissioner at 7 am in Adugodi area and started interrogating him.

According to a CBI source, Kumar had handed over the phone calls recordings in a pen drive to Kumaraswamy when his government was at stake due to several of his Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Congress party MLAs defecting to BJP after resigning in late June and July, news agency IANS reports.

Kumaraswamy's 14-month-old Congress-JD-S government lost power in July after it failed to prove majority on the floor of the Assembly.