The mastermind of "this criminal operation I am led to believe by reliable sources" is a director of Reliance Infocomm, Anil Ambani said in a letter written to Home Minister Shivraj Patil, in which he has named the director.

The government is believed to have forwarded the letter to intelligence agencies for initial inquiry. The home ministry had last month extended a security cover to Anil after he complained of receiving threatening calls.

In his communication Anil said that the concerned director is a "directly affected party" in any family settlement that takes place over the coming months on issues that have been widely reported in the media.

Anil also named two top officials of the Reliance Group, accusing them of assisting the director.

Stating that "their action, if true," constitute an unprecedented and criminal invasion of privacy and gross violation of his constitutional rights both as an elected member of Parliament and a private citizen, Anil said "in view of the grave and shocking nature of the charges, I would urge you to order an urgent official inquiry into the matter by a competent government agency."

Amid reports that Anil may get Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy [Get Quote] and Reliance Capital [Get Quote] as part of settlement between the two brothers, the latest development may cast a shadow on the negotiation process.

He said that people involved in tapping of his mobile and land line phones had understandably imported GSM chip cloning machines and other tapping equipment that are available for sale in Israel and other other countries.

"Using this equipment directly and through privately hired parties these unscrupulous elements have cloned GSM chips of my numbers as well as those numbers being used by my personal staff," Anil said in a recent communication to Patil.