Police files FIR on leaking of Rashmi Shukla's report; Fadnavis fires salvo at Ministers

As per sources, the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell has registered an FIR in the case of leaking of the phone tapping report prepared by Rashmi Shukla, the ex-Commissioner, State Intelligence Department. The case has filed against unknown persons, sources added. This development comes a day after Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte submitted a report into the alleged police transfer racket to CM Uddhav Thackeray. Observing that no malpractice could be established in the report of the ex-State Intelligence Commissioner's report, Kunte concluded that strict action can be taken against her if it is proven that she leaked the "top secret" letter. 

Speaking to the media on Friday, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis hinted that this report has been prepared by some Ministers in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Highlighting the several fallacies in the report, he also contested the accusation of having made the report public. Maintaining that he had only released the cover letter of Rashmi Shukla written dated to the then Maharashtra DGP Subodh Jaiswal, the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly accused Maharashtra Minister and NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik of disclosing the details of the report in the public domain. 

Ex-Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis remarked, "I know Sitaram Kunte very well. He is a straightforward person. After reading the report, I feel that he has not prepared it. This report has probably been prepared by Jitendra Awhad or Nawab Malik and he has signed it. This is because there are so many fallacies in the report. The first fallacy is that the report says that tapping can happen only when there is a national security issue and she took permission by misleading them." 

Maharashtra Chief Secretary hints at action against Shukla

Stressing that all transfers of police officers made between September 2-October 28, 2020 were based on the recommendations of the Police Establishment Board, he accused Shukla of misusing the permission obtained for phone tapping under the Indian Telegram Act. According to Kunte, she tendered an apology in person to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and him. In a sensational claim, he alleged that the state government decided not to take any action against Shukla despite her owning up to her "mistake" on "humanitarian grounds. Setting the record straight on Fadnavis' allegations, the state Chief Secretary asserted that the recommendations of the Police Establishment Board were followed in an overwhelming majority of 167 IPS officers in 2020.

Refuting the claim that no action was taken on Shukla's report, he shared the summary of the findings into her claims presented to Thackeray on August 31, 2020. Maintaining that there was no concrete evidence barring for the Call Record Detail analysis, it was reasoned that launching a CID inquiry would be "undesirable". Moreover, it was held that this will lead to a witch-hunt and cause serious discontent among officers.