Another FIR against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla for ‘illegally’ tapping phones of Sena leader

Mumbai: A fresh First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla for allegedly tapping phones of senior leaders while she was heading the State Intelligence Department (SID)

Mumbai: A fresh First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla for allegedly tapping phones of senior leaders while she was heading the State Intelligence Department (SID).

Earlier Mumbai’s Cyber police and Pune police had also registered FIRs alleging the role of the 1988-batch IPS officer in the phone tapping of political leaders. (HT PHOTO)

This is the third such FIR registered against Shukla for illegal phone tapping. Earlier Mumbai’s Cyber police and Pune police had also registered FIRs alleging the role of the 1988-batch IPS officer in the phone tapping of political leaders.

A senior police officer confirmed that the fresh case was registered at the Colaba police station on Thursday night, but refused to divulge further details.

Another police officer, who asked not to be named, said that Shukla has been booked under section 165 (public servant obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Telegraph Act.

Shukla, 57, is presently on central deputation and posted as additional director general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad.

The alleged tapping of phones had taken place when Shukla headed the state intelligence department (SID), which is located in the state police headquarters and falls in the jurisdiction of Colaba police station.

Police sources said that Shukla allegedly tapped phones of Raut and Khadse for 15 days with “vested political interest” during the last quarter of 2019 when state assembly elections were held.

According to home minister Dilip Walse-Patil, during her tenure, Shukla tapped phones of some political leaders like Nana Patole, Bachchu Kadu, Sanjay Kakade and Ashish Deshmukh on the pretext that the politicians were linked with the drugs business in Maharashtra.

Pune police had last week registered an FIR against Shukla for a similar offence.

Mumbai cyber police had on March 26, 2021, filed a case on a state intelligence department (SID) complaint against unknown persons for allegedly leaking the report submitted by Shukla, over the purported payments for

A fresh First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla for allegedly tapping phones of two senior Shiv Sena leaders while she was heading the State Intelligence Department (SID).

The state government had on July 9, 2021, issued an order to form a three-member committee to probe the alleged illegal phone tapping between 2015 to 2019.

The committee, comprising DGP Maharashtra, State Intelligence Department (SID) commissioner and additional commissioner of police (special branch-1, Mumbai), submitted its report to the government on February 8, 2022.

Subsequently, IPS Rajeev Jain, the additional commissioner of SB-1, filed a complaint against Shukla on behalf of the committee.

The probe committee, in its report, said that in 2019, the mobile phones of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and then BJP leader Eknath Khadse were put under surveillance.

The committee concluded that Shukla tapped Raut and Khadse’s phones in 2019. It also observed that Shukla did not follow rules and guidelines laid down by the central government on phone surveillance.

It also said that she continued the surveillance for a long time without taking the required permission.

Shukla did not respond to phone calls and messages for comment till press time.

This is the third such FIR registered against Shukla for illegal phone tapping. Earlier Mumbai’s Cyber police and Pune police had also registered FIRs alleging the role of the 1988-batch IPS officer in the phone tapping of political leaders.

A senior police officer confirmed that the fresh case was registered at the Colaba police station on Wednesday night, but refused to divulge further details.

Another police officer, who asked not to be named, said that Shukla has been booked under section 165 (public servant obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and section 26 of the Telegraph Act.

Shukla, 57, is presently on central deputation and posted as additional director general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad.

The alleged tapping of phones had taken place when Shukla headed the state intelligence department (SID), which is located in the state police headquarters and falls in the jurisdiction of Colaba police station.

According to home minister Dilip Walse-Patil, during her tenure, Shukla tapped phones of political leaders like Nana Patole, Bachchu Kadu, Sanjay Kakade and Ashish Deshmukh on the pretext that the politicians were linked with the drugs business in Maharashtra.

Pune police had last week registered an FIR against Shukla for a similar offence.

Mumbai cyber police had on March 26, 2021, filed a case on a state intelligence department (SID) complaint against unknown persons for allegedly leaking the report submitted by Shukla, over the purported payments for transfers within the police department when she was the commissioner of intelligence in August 2020.

Shukla’s report named senior politicians, middlemen, and police officers, who allegedly sought transfers and postings of their liking. The report referred to “monetary exchange” between officers and middlemen acting in close connection with politicians.

Home department officials had said that the copy that was reportedly leaked was the SID’s office copy and did not bear Shukla’s signature.

Former Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte had also submitted a report to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, detailing the circumstances in which Shukla created the report.

Kunte’s report added Shukla intercepted calls of six persons in the name of “public safety” and thus “misguided the authorities”. It said no transfers of police officers took place between June 27 and September 1, 2020, the period in which the calls were intercepted.

Kunte’s report questioned whether Shukla had leaked the report. It said if that were the case then she would be liable for “strict action”.

“The report leak had led to the breach of privacy and defamation of the officers whose names have been mentioned in it. The deals for the transfers mentioned in it and actual transfers done by the government differ. This proves that there was no question of any scam in the transfers,” Kunte’s report said.