Madhya Pradesh collector's office was bugged - Find out who was behind it

When Damoh IAS Pratap Narayan Yadav sat down in his chamber inside the district collectorate to plan a surprise inspection, the conversation was meant to stay inside the room.

It did not.

Minutes later, the very department he planned to inspect called him. "The caller said, 'Sir, we heard you are coming to inspect the department.' I did not divulge this to anyone. How could they know about a conversation that hasn’t left the room?" Yadav said. "That immediately raised red flags."

According to a report by The Indian Express, the recently-posted collector quickly suspected that confidential conversations inside his office were being intercepted. His first suspicion was an internal leak. But he soon believed that his chamber itself had been bugged.

Instead of launching a formal inquiry, Yadav allegedly set a trap. He turned up the volume on a live news broadcast playing on his phone, placed it inside the chamber, and walked out. Then he made my way to the adjacent PA room.

The PA room sits directly outside the collector's private office and is typically occupied by personal assistants and attendants. There, Yadav allegedly picked up a telephone receiver and heard the same live broadcast playing from inside his chamber.

"The same audio could be heard through the receiver in the next room," a senior official confirmed to IE. "It strongly suggested that conversations were being intercepted and monitored."

According to the reports, officials now suspect the alleged interception system had operated for years, long before Yadav took charge in Damoh. It is believed that staff in the PA room may have routinely listened to confidential meetings, sensitive phone calls, and internal administrative discussions before allegedly passing information to outside parties, including officials facing inspections.

"Some employees were sharing confidential information for personal gain or to curry favour with senior officials," Yadav alleged.

The administration acted swiftly and suspended an Assistant Grade-3 employee believed to be central to the operation. A clerk posted at the Collectorate for an unusually long period was transferred back to the Sarva Shiksha Kendra, while an office attendant was also removed and sent back to the original department.

Authorities seized both telephone sets from the office and sent them for forensic and technical examination to determine how the interception was configured, how long it had remained active, and who may have accessed the intercepted conversations.

The probe is also examining whether the alleged leak network extended beyond the three employees already facing action.