Pune: Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has got a big relief. She had allegedly tapped phones of leaders in the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
The case related to Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla allegedly leaking details of a confidential report prepared by her purportedly showing a nexus between the police and politicians. It underlined irregularities in connection with transfers and postings of police officers and personnel in the State. The Metropolitan Magistrate Court closed the case on Monday.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate accepted the report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 22, 2023. The report reportedly stated that the facts were true but there was no prosecutable evidence to put the person concerned on trial. The CBI suggested that the case could be closed. The Mumbai Cyber Cell had registered the case under the Official Secrets Act.
Shukla had prepared the confidential report in August 2020 when she was heading the State Intelligence Department (SID). The report had mentioned the name of two senior politicians, including the then Home Minister and a person known as “Dada”. Moreover, six IPS officers and 23 state police service officers were also named in it. Names of some private persons were also mentioned, who had worked as middlemen for securing transfers of police officers. The officers were given their desired posting in exchange for money.
Devendra Fadnavis had presented some documents in a press conference held on March 23, 2021. He had alleged massive corruption in the transfers and postings of police officers in the Maharashtra Police force. He had referred to the report filed by Shukla to support this. He had claimed that the State Government did not act on Shukla’s report. He said that he would hand over the proof and the report saved in two pen drives to the CBI.
After three days on March 26, the Mumbai Cyber Cell had filed an FIR on the basis of a complaint lodged by the Assistant Commissioner of Police from the SID.
Police officers had claimed that Rashmi Shukla, who was then the Additional DGP in the Southern Division of the CRPF, had copied the report saved in three pen drives. The Cyber Cell recovered two pen drives out of the three. The third pen drive containing the official copy of the SID was suspected to have been given to Fadnavis.
The State Government had already refused to run the trial against Shukla in the phone tapping case. The Home Department had also denied permission for the same.
Earlier, the court had directed the Pune Police to re-investigate the case following the rejection of the closure report against the then Commissioner of Police Rashmi Shukla. JFMC Chandrakala Patil had issued the directive on December 14, 2022. The court had made strictures against the investigation while ordering re-investigation. It had directed the police officers to investigate further on the basis of collected evidence and details of the case. Moreover, it had ordered more evidence. It had also directed to submit a report regarding this.
