Pune : The Pune Police on Saturday lodged an FIR against IPS officer and a former Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla in connection with the phone-tapping scandal that erupted last year, officials said here.
Following the report of a 3-member committee, the state government ordered the Bund Garden Police Station to file the FIR against Shukla, a 1988 IPS officer, who is currently the Additional DGP, CRPF.
At the relevant time of the phone-tapping episode in 2020, she was serving as the Additional DGP of Maharashtra State Intelligence Department and later shunted as Chief of Civil Defence on September 3, 2020.
In March 2021, the Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis had shared phone call records and other evidence of officers allegedly attempting to influence former home minister Anil Deshmukh for transfers or plum postings.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government ordered a probe into the ‘illegal’ phone tapping carried out by Shukla to unearth the alleged police transfers-postings scam and leaking of call data.
The probe report by the then Chief Secretary Sitaram J. Kunte submitted to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, pointed an accusing finger at Shukla for overstepping her brief.
When confronted, Shukla not only admitted her mistake but apologised for her actions, citing personal and family issues like her husband’s death due to cancer and children’s education, etc.
“She (Shukla) had met the CM, Home Minister (Anil Deshmukh) and myself and expressed regrets for the matter. She also sought permission to withdraw her report. Since she was a woman officer who had undergone traumatic personal problems and had admitted to her fault, a sympathetic view was taken and the matter was not pursued further,” Kunte’s report to Thackeray said.
Shukla’s ‘Top Secret’ report of August 25, 2020, had damned several prominent personalities including Deshmukh in the alleged corruption in the police promotions-transfer racket, but it was leaked into the public domain.
Following Kunte’s report, based on a complaint by the state CID, the Mumbai Cyber Police Station lodged a FIR on March 26, 2021 against ‘unknown’ persons invoking various sections under the Official Secrets Act, Indian Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act.
–IANS