Mitali Palnitkar
Published on: March 04, 2022 at 15:18 IST
A Petition was filed in the Bombay High Court by IPS Officer Rashmi Shukla seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Pune Police alleging tapping of Phones of Politicians, between 2015 to 2019 when the BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) led alliance was in power.
The Bench comprising Justices SS Shinde and NR Borkar will be hearing the Petition.
Shukla is alleged to have done Phone Tapping between March 2016 and July 2018 when she was the Pune City Police Commissioner. The FIR against Shukla was filed on February 26, 2022, under Sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 for alleged illegal tapping of phones of Politicians.
Nana Patole, the State Congress President alleged that his phone was tapped from 2016 to2017, under the pretext that it belonged to Amjad Khan who was involved in the Narcotics Smuggling Case.
He also alleged that the phones of the Personal Assistant of Raosaheb Danve, the then Bhartiya Janta Party Member of Parliament Sanjay Kakade and other Elected Representatives was tapped.
The State Government Constituted a three-member committee to Probe the Allegations. IPS Officer Sanjay Pandey, the then Director-General of Police, Maharashtra was heading the Committee.
In the Plea, Shukla stated that she was being “Falsely Implicated” and that she was a Victim of “Political Vendetta”.
In December 2021, the Bombay High Court had refused to quash another FIR registered by the Mumbai Police against unknown persons for leaking Confidential Report that was prepared by Shukla concerning Phone Tapping.
However, the Court had not quashed the Petition but the Police were directed to give a one week Notice in case they intended to arrange Shukla as an Accused in the Case.
