WHO'S KEEPING TABS?

Arrested IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has claimed that she tapped the phones of politicians as she had powers to do so under the Act. But was she taking orders from higher ups?

- Abhilash Kumar Singh and India Legal Bureau

ON April 26, 2022, the Mumbai Police filed a charge-sheet against senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla (left) in an alleged phone tapping case. The over 700-pages charge-sheet contains statements of at least 20 people, including Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and NCP leader Eknath Khadse whose phones were allegedly tapped illegally when Shukla headed the State Intelligence Department.

An FIR was lodged against Shukla under the Indian Telegraph Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at Colaba Police Station on the complaint of Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Branch). The police also added sections of forgery in the case. This is the first case in which the police have filed a charge-sheet against Shukla. Pune police and Mumbai Cyber police are also investigating a similar case against her.

According to the complaint, the phones of Khadse, who was then with the BJP, were kept under surveillance for two months. Similarly, Raut's phones were under illegal surveillance when talks were underway between the Shiv Sena and the Congress-NCP for the formation of a government in Maharashtra after the 2019 assembly polls.

Currently Shukla is on central deputation and posted as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad.

The police's investigation is heavily "reliant on the findings of a three-member committee that was constituted by the government to enquire into the illegal phone tapping between 2016 and 2019. The committee, which was formed in July 2021, comprised the Director General Police (DGP), Commissioner SID and additional commissioner of police, special branch -1, Mumbai. Later, one of the committee members-additional commissioner SB-1 Rajeev Jain-filed an FIR against Shukla on March 2 at Colaba police station.