A fortnight ago, the Pune police had registered a criminal case against its former commissioner Rashmi Shukla for blatant violation of the Indian Telegraph Act. That was followed by another offence being registered against her at the Colaba police station under the same law.
In both the cases, the contention of the law enforcing agencies was that Shukla illegally tapped cell phones of leading politicians, including state Congress president Nana Patole, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and NCP leader Eknath Khadse. The FIR specifically mentions that tapping was for a prolonged period of time, much beyond the permissible duration.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey, who the then DGP, conducted a probe into the cell phone tapping episode and submitted the report following which criminal cases were registered against Shukla. She has already approached the high court, which had granted her protection from coercive action. Anil Deshmukh was the home minister then, and based on a confidential report submitted to him, he had declared that Khadse's cell phone was under surveillance when Devendra Fadnavis was the CM. In the wake the criminal cases against Shukla, Patole and Khadse are in the process of initiating defamation proceedings against her.
