Being made scapegoat: IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in Bombay HC in phone tapping case

The bench was hearing her plea for quashing of FIR in the case of alleged illegal phone tapping and leaking of her 2020 report over corruption in police transfers and postings

Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla on Friday claimed before the Bombay high court (HC) that she was being made a scapegoat.

The bench, while continuing the protection from arrest to Rashmi Shukla, has posted the matter for Saturday, when the Maharashtra government is likely to argue on the matter. (HT File)

The bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar was hearing her petition for quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered by the cyber cell in the case of alleged illegal phone tapping and leaking of her 2020 report over corruption in police transfers and postings.

Shukla, the then head of the state intelligence department (SID), said, “I am an upright officer. I was shunted out in an illegal manner from SID commissioner’s post without following any proper procedure because I had made the report.”

The case – registered on March 26 – was triggered after opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis, in an interview to a television channel on March 23, cited the report and corruption in transfers, Jethmalani told the bench.

“I had got sanctions from time to time from additional chief secretary Sitaram Kunte from July 17 to July 29, 2020, to carry out the phone tappings. I had managed to bring to light the nexus between brokers and others assigning postings to police officers, and the fact that nine of them had actually got the postings,” she said.

“I was abruptly transferred on September 2 without following due procedure as director general of police (civil defence). There was no office neither any staff allotted. The state has made nine DGP posts without permission from home affairs or approval from the state cabinet,” Shukla further stated.

She alleged that Kunte is trying to “exonerate” himself.

“Despite having all the permissions to carry out the tappings, I am now been made a scapegoat. A report by Kunte already blames me and further states that I accepted my mistake before him and told him that my husband had died due to cancer and my children were still studying. This is a lie. I had only told him that if there was a problem, I was ready to withdraw my report. My husband died in 2018, I am even ready to undergo a lie detector test, provided others are also willing to take it to bring out the truth,” the IPS officer submitted through her lawyer.

“I have done nothing wrong in my job as SID commissioner and duly followed my duty, and if the state thought there was nothing in my report, why was it reluctant to share it with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), that is demanding it,” she questioned.

The bench, while continuing the protection from arrest to Shukla, has posted the matter for Saturday, when the state government is likely to argue on the matter.