Illegal phone-tapping and police transfer case: Devendra Fadnavis calls questioning by cyber cell ‘politically motivated’

After being questioned by a Mumbai police team on Sunday in a case of illegal tapping of phones and corruption in transfers of police officials, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis said the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government was taking “politically motivated” action against him

After being questioned by a Mumbai police team on Sunday in a case of illegal tapping of phones and corruption in transfers of police officials, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis said the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government was taking “politically motivated” action against him. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that he was asked leading questions to make him an accused or co-accused in the case, which also pertains to leak of confidential documents.

Former chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis addresses the media on Sunday. Bhushan Koyande/ HT Photo

The former chief minister claimed that this was because he had exposed the alleged scam in police transfers and the alleged links between Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Nawab Malik, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Mumbai police’s cyber cell had issued a notice to Fadnavis, asking him to appear before them on Sunday. But later, Fadnavis was told that officials would visit his residence at Malabar Hill and there was no need for him to come to the police station at Bandra.

The BJP staged protests on Sunday with senior leaders turning up at Fadnavis’s residence in support.

Home minister Dilip Walse Patil said that Fadnavis had not been served a notice as an accused but to seek information that was available with him. Six such notices had been sent to him, the minister said.

The case pertains to secret letters and technical information being leaked illegally from the State Intelligence Department (SID) office and five unknown people were booked in March 2021 under relevant sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Official Secrets Act, 1923, and IT Act, 2000.

“This is an almost one-year-old case and the investigation has come to a standstill as his [Fadnavis] statement has not been recorded… we will not take vindictive action against anyone,” Walse Patil said, adding the Mumbai police were only probing how this data was leaked.

Speaking to reporters after he was quizzed by police for over two hours, Fadnavis said the state government was trying to put him in the dock using the Official Secrets Act, and added this was part of pressure tactics to prevent further “scams” from being exposed.

“There was a mahaghotala [massive scam] in [police] transfers and I have given all information to the Union home secretary. The high court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI] to probe this scam and the Supreme Court has ratified it. This means that this scam indeed took place and hence, the CBI is probing it. The state government cannot investigate this as it had suppressed the report for six months. If I had not exposed it, this mahaghotala would have been covered up,” he said.

The BJP leader said that police had served him a notice on Saturday with a vindictive purpose. “…I have been speaking in the Assembly about the relations between Dawood and a minister in this government [Malik] and how the government is trying to snare opposition figures.”

“There is a qualitative difference between the questionnaire sent to me and the questions that were asked today. The questions asked today were pointedly seeking to probe if I had violated the Official Secrets Act. I was asked if I had violated the Official Secrets Act by exposing this scam and if this was right… the queries were aimed at checking if I could be made an accused or co-accused. I replied clearly to all questions and said that I would not speak on it if the Official Secrets Act applied to me, but that the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2014, must be applied to me, as I exposed this scam and I am the whistle-blower,” he said.

Fadnavis said he had behaved like a responsible leader. “I showed the forwarding letter at a press conference but said that I could not give the transcript or pen drive to anyone as this was sensitive material. Who is the competent authority? I cannot give this to the state government as it has suppressed the scam. Since IPS officers have been named in these papers and as the Union home secretary is the competent authority, I gave the papers to the Union home secretary,” he added, stating that he had not brought sensitive material into the public domain.

“If official secrets were breached, who did it? In the evening, these transcripts that I handed over to the Union home secretary were given to reporters by Malik. Hence, he must be probed if the police feel these were secret documents,” Fadnavis said and added, “The government cannot entrap me despite its best efforts. I will continue to expose its dark deeds.”

Senior NCP leader and food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal said police just wanted to verify information from Fadnavis. He added that on the other hand, the ED was arresting people without conducting any inquiries.

Shiv Sena leader and environment minister Aaditya Thackeray said, “Unlike the Union government, we do not use [investigating] agencies as propaganda vehicles.”

Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla is accused of tapping phones of political leaders and senior officials illegally when she was the SID chief. Fadnavis had cited a letter reportedly written by her to the then Maharashtra Director General of Police about alleged corruption in police transfers. Before the case was registered, then chief secretary Sitaram Kunte had alleged in his inquiry report that Shukla had leaked the confidential report.