Mumbai police files 700-page charge sheet against IPS Rashmi Shukla in phone tapping case

Mumbai: Colaba police has filed a charge sheet against senior IPS Rashmi Shukla in the case of illegal phone tapping of Shiv Sena MP Sanja Raut and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse. The police have also added sections of forgery in the case. This is the first case in which the police have filed a chargesheet against Shukla. Pune police and Mumbai Cyber police are also investigating a similar case against her.

According to police sources, Raut and Khadse’s phones were illegally tapped by the then-State Intelligence Department (SID) chief Shukla under the pretext that they were “anti-social elements”.

Police sources confirmed that a nearly 700-page charge sheet has been filed against Shukla on Tuesday. The charge sheet contains statements of nearly two dozen government officials as witnesses, including those who were posted at the SID during the commission of the said crime. Statements of six key witnesses were recorded before the magistrate under the provisions of 164 CrPC.

The police had earlier pressed charges under section 165 (public servant obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Telegraph Act.

At the time of filing the chargesheet, the police have added sections 465 (forgery) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using as genuine any forged document). The police refused to share further details about the charge sheet.

Sources have confirmed that the police’s investigation is heavily reliant on the findings of the 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 -- had filed an FIR against Shukla on March 2 at the Colaba police station. After Shukla secured relief from the arrest in the case from the Bombay high court, the police recorded her statement twice. The police also recorded statements of Raut and Khadse.

Shukla, a 1988-batch IPS officer, held the post of the SID from October 11, 2018, to September 3, 2020. She is currently posted as the additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) (South Zone) in Hyderabad.

Shukla did not respond to queries.

Raut, whose phone was allegedly tapped by Shukla, had recently said, “Whether it was me, Eknath Khadse or Nana Patole, we were falsely labelled anti-social elements. Rashmi Shukla sought permission to tap our phone; the phone numbers were ours but the names against the numbers were of some drug peddlers, gang-runner, anti-social elements etc. This has breached our privacy as they wanted to snoop on us to know the development of the formation of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.”

“Phones of key leaders who were involved in the process of forming the alliance in 2019 were being tapped. They wanted to keep a tab on who we spoke to, and what we were planning,” Raut had added.

He further said that the police officer, whom we expect to work neutrally, was working to show loyalty to a leader or a party. “The officer is now being given protection by the Centre, which is unfortunate,” Raut stated.

Similarly, Khadse had said, “My phone was tapped for 67 days with a different name and on the pretext that I’m involved in anti-social activities. In my view, Shukla is an officer and without receiving an order she can’t tap phones. In such cases, final approval comes from the chief minister. Unfortunately, my phone was tapped though I was in the BJP. The matter should be investigated and who ordered phone tapping and why all this needs to come before the people.”

Last month, the Bombay high court (HC) restrained the Mumbai and Pune police from taking any coercive action against Shukla. The IPS officer had moved the HC to quash both FIRs.