Mumbai: A 1998 batch IPS officer, Rashmi Shukla, who was accused by the Opposition of having proximity to the Mahayuti, hogged the headlines during her tenure as the state Intelligence chief and Pune Police Commissioner for illegal phone tapping during the BJP-led rule between 2015 and 2019.
After the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was formed, three FIRs were filed against her in Mumbai and Pune for illegally tapping the phones of state Congress chief Nana Patole, NCP leader Eknath Khadse and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi government had constituted a committee headed by the former additional chief secretary of home department Sitaram Kunte who in his report said that Shukla had taken permission to record these calls under the guise of interception of calls of a few people in the interest of public safety and had thus misguided the authorities.
“In fact, the interception was done in case of the possibility of a threat to national security and anti-national activities under the Indian Telegram Act to avert any such threats. The interception is not expected for political differences, professional or family disputes. However, Shukla did use the permission for the purpose other than it was meant for, thereby misleading the government and misusing the permission,” the report said.
The committee found that Shukla had tapped the phones for reasons other than the permissions she had sought and found this to be illegal.
“It was also found that Shukla tapped the phones of Patole by changing his name as Amjad Khan, minister of state for education Bacchu Kadu as Babu Shaikh, former MP Sanjay Kakade as Abhijit Nair and former legislator Ashish Deshmukh as Mahesh Salunke.
“Their phones were tapped on the plea that they were involved in the sale of drugs,’’ the report said.
Further, a case was registered against Shukla at the Bund Garden police station in Pune for allegations of illegal phone tapping.
She was booked under Section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act.
Thereafter, another committee was formed to look into the allegations of illegal tapping of politicians’ phones.
The three-member committee was headed by the former acting director general of police Sanjay Pandey.
The committee observed that Shukla had illegally tapped phones and hence a case has been registered against her and others.
However, the Bombay High Court in March 2022 had restrained Pune police from arresting her till March 25, 2022.
Subsequently, the High Court quashed two FIRs registered in Pune and Mumbai against Shukla pertaining to the alleged tapping of Opposition leaders’ phones.
When Shukla was heading the state Intelligence department, she in her report penned in August 2020 named two senior politicians – the then home minister and another person known as “Dada”, and six IPS officers and 23 state service police officers.
She also named some private individuals who acted as middlemen to facilitate transfers and secure desired postings for senior police officers in exchange for money and by using their close connection with the two politicians.
Thereafter, the former Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis had sought the CBI enquiry based on Shukla’s report.
He then claimed large-scale corruption in police transfers saying that he had 6.3 GB of data of call records intercepted by Shukla where the names of several key police officers were discussed.
Despite controversies, the Mahayuti government comprising BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, appointed Shukla as the state DGP in January this year although she was to retire in June.
She was given an extension till January 2026.
(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in)
IANS