News Analysis India

Tag: phone tapping case

  • Centre protecting IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in phone tapping case: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday claimed the Centre is protecting IPS officer Rashmi Shukla who is being probed for alleged phone tapping of certain political leaders. Talking to reporters here, Raut said be it Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole, himself or some other leaders, all were labelled “anti-social elements” and their phones were tapped.

    Some people were labelled as “drug peddlers and gangsters” and this happened when the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was being formed in November 2019, the Rajya Sabha MP claimed.

    “Someone was conducting surveillance on us and trying to find out about the formation of the new government. Our privacy was invaded… One police officer, who is expected to work impartially, was doing it to show her loyalty to one political party and a leader. Now the Centre is protecting her, like always. This is unfortunate,” Raut said without naming Shukla, a former head of the State Intelligence Department (SID).

    The senior IPS officer is facing an FIR in Mumbai and is being probed for allegedly putting the phone numbers of Raut and former BJP leader Eknath Khadse (who is now in the NCP) under surveillance when she headed the SID.

    The Pune police had also registered an FIR against Shukla in connection with alleged tapping of the phones of Patole. Shukla served as the Pune police commissioner between March 2016 and July 2018.

    She is currently posted with the Central Reserve Police Force. In a plea filed in the Bombay High Court in one of the alleged phone tapping cases, Shukla had claimed she was being “falsely implicated” and called herself a victim of “political vendetta”.

  • Delhi Police summons Rajasthan Congress chief whip for questioning in phone tapping case

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has sent a notice to Congress chief whip in the Rajasthan Assembly Mahesh Joshi asking him to appear before it on June 24 for questioning in the phone tapping case lodged on a complaint by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

    The police have asked Joshi to reach the Prashant Vihar office of the Crime Branch in Rohini for the questioning.

    Joshi confirmed he had received the notice on Tuesday but said he would not be able to appear before the Crime Branch on June 24.

    “I will not be able to appear before the Crime Branch in Delhi on the said date. A reply to the notice will be given today,” Joshi told PTI.

    The Congress leader said he was not named in the FIR that was registered by the police on the complaint lodged by Shekhawat, who is also the BJP MP from Jodhpur.

    The phone-tapping controversy erupted in July last year in Rajasthan.

    Audio clips of alleged telephonic conversations between Shekhawat and Congress leaders surfaced amidst a rebellion against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot by his then deputy Sachin Pilot and 18 party MLAs supporting him.

    Congress leaders of Gehlot’s camp had alleged that BJP leaders were indulging in horse-trading to topple the state government.

    On the basis of Shekhawat’s complaint, the Delhi Police registered an FIR in March this year against Gehlot’s Officer on Special Duty Lokesh Sharma and others on charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and unlawfully intercepting telegraphic signals (telephonic conversation).

    Sharma has rejected the allegations.

    He had approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the FIR against him.

    Earlier this month, the court asked the Delhi Police not to take any coercive action against Sharma till the next date of hearing — August 6.

    Joshi had lodged complaints regarding the audio clips of conversations purportedly about attempts to topple the Rajasthan government with the state police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) last year.

    However, the Rajasthan Police FIR did not mention that Gajendra Singh referred to in the clip was Union minister Shekhawat.

    The SOG ultimately closed the case after the Congress high command intervened to resolve the issues between Gehlot and Pilot.

    PTI AG SDA DIV DIV 06231138 NNNN

  • Will meet Governor once he returns, says Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said he, along with a delegation of the state government, will meet Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to inform him of the recent transfers in the state police department and phone tapping case.

    “Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked for time from the Governor to meet him today but the Governor is out of the station. We will meet him whenever he is available,” Pawar said.

    “Yesterday, the Chief Minister ordered chief secretary Sitaram Kunte (then ACS Home department) to file a detail report by today afternoon on the phone tapping issue,” he added.

    Pawar also slammed the Opposition for trying to de-stabilise the government in the state.

    “From day one, the Opposition wanted our government to fall but we are in the full majority,” he added.

    On Tuesday, the Republican Party of India (RPI) delegation, led by former Maharashtra minister Avinash Mahatekar, met the Governor and requested him to recommend for President’s Rule in the state due to failure of law and order situation.

    On March 20, Devendra Fadnavis had demanded State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s resignation over former Maharashtra Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations against Deshmukh.