@the_news_21
A court here on Tuesday allowed the Maharashtra government’s application seeking documents from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in connection with an alleged phone tapping case.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S B Bhajipale granted the plea. The detailed order was not available yet.
The BKC cyber police station here in March 2021 registered a case on a complaint by the State Intelligence Department (SID) against unidentified persons for allegedly tapping phones illegally and leaking confidential documents.
Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla had headed the SID during the relevant period. But the FIR did not name her. The state government wrote to the MHA seeking some documents regarding the case, but the latter declined, stating that the demand was “vague and untenable.” The Maharashtra government then moved the magistrate’s court, seeking a direction to the MHA to hand over the documents.
In the court, the Union government sought dismissal of the plea, saying the state authorities had failed to specify which documents they wanted and from whom.
Earlier, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had cited a letter, purportedly written by Shukla, to then Director General of Police about alleged corruption in police transfers. The letter had details of intercepted calls, leading to an uproar with leaders of the ruling coalition alleging that Shukla tapped phones of political leaders and officials without authorization.
Shukla, who is now with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), claimed before the Bombay High Court in a related petition that the government had given permission for the interception of certain phone numbers to verify complaints of corruption in police transfers.
