Making a sensational allegation, West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that her phone was tapped and that she hadthe evidence to prove her charge."My phone was tapped, I know that.Because I have got the information, I have the evidence with me," Banerjeetold media persons at the state secretariat Nabanna.

Asked whether she would raise the matter with the Centre,Banerjee said: "What is there to be raised? The government knows it. Thegovernment has done it."Banerjee levelled the allegations while replyingto queries from journalists on the accusations of public surveillance throughWhatsApp.

This is not the first time the Trinamool Congress supremo hascome up with the allegation.In February, she had charged the Central agencieswith tapping her phone, while reacting to the terror attack on CRPF convoy insouth Kashmir's Pulwama district.

"I also have intelligence reports that my phone isalways tapped, as you all know," she had said.In September 2012, when herparty came out of the UPA-led coalition at the Centre, Banerjee had hinted atthe government resorting to the tapping of her phones.

"If you have the Central government in your hand, youcan get the phones tapped. It has happened to me before. My number had threecopies. When I would go to Nandigram or Midnapore, I could not use my number asit was being used in Kolkata," she had then said, claiming to have filedpolice complaints against the misuse of her phone.

When the Trinamool was the principal opposition in thestate, with the Left Front in the saddle, the party had in November 2009,lodged a complaint with then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram that the stategovernment had ordered tapping of phones of Banerjee and other functionaries.

The then Leader of the opposition in the state assemblyPartha Chatterjee had told media persons that an additional commissioner ofpolice had been given the task to tap the phones.