MUMBAI: Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil on Saturday said Pune police had on Friday registered an offence against ex-Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla for illegally and unauthorisedly tapping cellphones of leading politicians, including now-state Congress president Nana Patole. As per the FIR, the cell phones were tapped from March 31, 2016 to August 3, 2018 when Devendra Fadnavis was CM and also home minister.
The FIR comes at a time central agencies have initiated action against MVA members. “We have booked Rashmi Shukla, now on central deputation in Hyderabad, for blatant violation of the Indian Telegraph Act, based on a report submitted by a three-member committee comprising DGP Sanjay Pandey, state intelligence commissioner and the additional CP (special branch),” Walse Patil said.
IPS officer Shukla is also under probe by Mumbai police’s cyber cell for alleged leaking a confidential report she had submitted in her capacity as state intelligence chief in 2020 to then DGP Subodh Jaiswal on transfers and postings of IPS officers. While the MVA government said it found the report was allegedly leaked, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis had simultaneously declared he would hand over the report to Union home secretary.
As per the three-page FIR filed on Friday, Shukla had used codenames while tapping phones of Patole, then BJP legislator Ashish Deshmukh, independent legislator Bacchu Kadu and independent Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kakade, who later became associate member of BJP.
Patole’s number had the codename ‘Amjad Khan,’ Kakde was called ‘Tarbej Sutar’ and ‘Abhijeet Nair’, Ashish Deshmukh was called ‘Raghu Chorge’ and ‘Hina Mahesh Salunke’ and Bacchu Kadu was named ‘Nizamuddin Shaikh.’
A total of six cellphones were kept under observation, and it was stated all the persons concerned were involved in large-scale trade of drugs to students in Pune city. “The impression was Shukla was tapping cellphones of drug-peddlers, but in fact these phones belonged to politicians. We will take legal advice and decide the future course of action,” Walse Patil said.
During a discussion on the law and order situation in the state on July 6, 2021, Patole had alleged his cellphone was under observation along with phones of several other leading politicians, with fake names being used. He had demanded a high-level probe. The home minister had then assured the House that a committee comprising DGP Sanjay Pandey, the state intelligence commissioner and additional CP (special branch) would probe incidents of phone-tapping between 2015 and 2019, when Fadnavis was the chief minister.