Siddaramaiah claimed that BJP chief Amit Shah may have recommended the CBI probe.

Congress leader Siddaramaiah today called Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa a "pathological liar" for claiming that he had sought a CBI probe into allegations of phone tapping by the previous coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy.

"@BSYBJP has said that I requested him to hand over the phone tapping case to the CBI. This is baseless and filled with mala fide intention. He has become a pathological liar due to his fear for @AmitShah. I only asked to conduct unbiased investigation," he tweeted.

He was referring to a statement made by Yediyurappa to mediapersons while announcing the CBI probe into the phone-tapping charges. "Several leaders, including Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, have said that it should be probed and the truth should come out," he had said.

A formal request for a CBI inquiry into the phone-tapping allegation was made by the Karnataka government later in the day. Mr Kumaraswamy, however, said that he does not fear being investigated.

BS Yediyurappa's decision followed disqualified Janata Dal Secular MLA AH Vishwanath's accusation last week that the previous HD Kumaraswamy government had been tapping telephones and spying on over 300 people. The Congress reacted to the claim like a divided house. While party leaders Siddaramaiah, Mallikarjuna Kharge and MB Patil sought a probe into the issue, former state minister DK Shivakumar rejected it outright.

AH Vishwanath was previously a state president of the Janata Dal Secular.

Siddaramaiah today claimed that he had made no mention of the CBI, which the Congress believes is no longer an unbiased investigation agency. "@BSYBJP has handed over the phone tapping case to the CBI based on strict orders of @AmitShah and not on my request. Let him accept this fact and show the world that he too has a spine," he said in another tweet, adding that the CBI would be better off investigating how the BJP got Congress and Janata Dal Secular MLAs to change sides through "Operation Kamala".

"If @BSYBJP truly listens to my words, let him first hand over 'Operation Kamala' case to CBI. Many @INCKarnataka & @JanataDal_S MLAs had openly claimed that @BJP4Karnataka had offered them money. There is audio evidence too," he tweeted.

Janata Dal Secular chief HD Deve Gowda seemed to suggest that it would not be prudent to launch an investigation into the phone-tapping allegations. "This is going to demoralise the police. The officers do their job with responsibility. This kind of thing, if you allow, it will demoralise the entire intelligence department in the country," he said.