Members of Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) detained the former interior minister and state prosecutor Janusz Kaczmarek Thursday morning, officials said.

According to his lawyer, Kaczmarek is being accused of interfering in a criminal inquiry. Along with the former minister, the recently dismissed chief of police Konrad Kornatowski was also arrested, Polish media reported.

Many believed that a huge scandal is about to rattle the government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, after Kaczmarek accused the Prime Minister and other high-ranked officials of using the secret services to spy on political opponents and even journalists.

Kaczmarek was the country’s minister of internal affairs and administration until August 8, when Premier Kaczynski fired him for allegedly giving important information about an ongoing investigation to a controversial politician.

Since then, the lawyer has been criticizing the government for using illegal methods in order to compromise rivals and has testified in front of a parliamentary commission about the alleged abuses.

His statement is supported by Roman Giertych, the former deputy prime minister and education minister, who says Kaczynski illegally uses the secret services for monitoring prominent figures regardless of their political appurtenance.

“We have a Polish Watergate… using these wiretaps for political goals, in my opinion trying to arrange the detention or arrest of government colleagues - this is not the kind of activity which can be included in the canon of any code of conduct, aside from the gangsters' code,” the chairman of League of Polish Families party said.

The famous Watergate scandal led to the resignation of former United States president Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974. He was accused of covering up a series of illegal and secret activities undertaken by members of his administration against political rivals.

Now, Polish opposition members are demanding for a parliamentary panel to be established in order to investigate the accusations. Kaczynski denied the allegations, but critics continue to emerge and point the finger at the prime minister for allegedly trying to silence opponents before calling for early elections.

The ruling coalition broke up after several members resigned along with the withdrawal of their parties from the governing alliance, Kaczynski trying to organize early elections in order to form a new government.