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Have been made a scapegoat: IPS officer Rashmi Shukla to Bombay HC
The bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar was hearing her petition for quashing of the FIR registered by the cyber cell for alleged illegal phone tapping and leaking of her report regarding corruption in police transfers and postings
Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla on Friday told the Bombay high court that she has been made a scapegoat for submitting a report on alleged corruption in police transfers and postings.
The bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar was hearing her petition for quashing of the FIR registered by the cyber cell for alleged illegal phone tapping and leaking of her report regarding corruption in police transfers and postings.
Shukla, the then head of the State Intelligence Department (SID), told the bench through her counsel, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani: “I am an upright officer. I was shunted out in an illegal manner from the post of State Intelligence Department, Commissioner, without following any proper procedure as I had made the report.”
“I had got sanctions from time to time from Additional Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte from July 17, 2020 to July 29, 2020 to carry out the phone tappings. I had managed to bring to light the nexus between brokers and others assigning in postings to police officers and nine of them had actually got the postings,” Jethmalani told the bench.
“I was abruptly transferred on 2nd September without following due procedure as DGP Civil Defence. There was no office neither any staff allotted to the office. The State has made nine posts of DGP without permission from Home Affairs or any approval from the State Cabinet.”
Shukla’s counsel further told the court: “Despite having all the permission to carrying out the tappings, I am now been made a scapegoat. Kunte is trying to exonerate himself. A report by Kunte already blames me and further says 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 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.”
“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 the CBI that is demanding it,” Jethmalani argued.
The FIR was a trigger after senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and opposition leader in the assembly, Devendra Fadnavis, gave an interview to a television channel on March 23 citing the report and corruption in transfers. A case was registered on March 26 in the matter, Jethmalani told the bench.
The bench while continuing the protection granted to Shukla, posted the matter for Saturday when the Maharashtra government is likely to argue on the matter.
