Lekha G
Senior Maharashtra IPS Officer Rashmi Shukla has approached the Hyderabad High Court on April 29 against the summons issued by the Mumbai Police in connection with the alleged leaking of sensitive documents related to police postings and the phone-tapping case.
Shukla moved the petition through her lawyer Veerender Singh and the respondents in the case are Union of India, State of Maharashtra, Government of Maharashtra, Director General of Police, Mumbai Police Commissioner and an Assistant Commissioner of Police from the Cyber Cell, who is probing the case.
In her petition she also stated that the investigation was undertaken to harass her out of political vendetta.
The prayer before the Court was “To issue any writ order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus declaring the action of the 6th respondent (ACP) to issue summons dated April 26 and 28 as illegal arbitrary and violative of Article 14, 21 and 300A Constitution of India and consequently to direct the 6th respondent to not harass the petitioner in connection with summons dated 26th April and 28th April 2021”.
An FIR under Sections of the Official Secrets Act was issued against unknown persons after call intercepts of IPS Officers and other sensitive details recorded by Shukla was leaked to former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, when she was the State Intelligence Department Chief.
An FIR was also registered under Section 30 of the Indian Telegraph Act and Section 43(B) of the Information Technology Act.
Fadnavis made these details public in March and alleged the intercepts showed the corruption of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh indulged in while effecting police transfers.
A team of Mumbai Police issued summons to Shukla asking her to appear before the BKC Cyber Police on April 28 in connection with an offence registered in the phone-tapping matter.
Replying to the summons through email Shukla expressed her inability to appear before the department due to Covid. She instead requested a questionnaire to be sent to avoid delay in the investigation.
The Mumbai Police disagreed and issued a second summon asking her to appear before the Cyber Police on May 3.
An official said that whether Shukla appears before the Mumbai Police will depend on what the HC decides. The matter has been posted to be heard on May 6.