Bombay HC quashes two phone-tapping cases against IPS officer Shukla

The Bombay high court on Friday quashed two cases lodged against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and Maharashtra’s former intelligence chief, Rashmi Shukla, in connection with the alleged tapping of Opposition leaders’ phones during the Devendra Fadnavis-led government between 2014 and 2019.

The FIRs were registered when the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power.

Friday’s verdict comes amid speculation that Shukla might get a central posting or be appointed as the Maharashtra DGP. At present, she is posted as director-general of the Sashastra Seema Bal. In the first FIR in Mumbai, Shukla was accused of illegally tapping phones of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut and Nationalist Congress Party leader Eknath Khadse; while the second one in Pune accuses her of tapping Congress leader Nana Patole’s phone.

On Friday, Shukla’s counsel Mahesh Jethmalani told the high court that in the Pune FIR, the police have submitted a C-Summary report (case is neither false nor true) seeking to close it; and in the Mumbai one, the government refused to grant sanction to prosecute Shukla. Taking this into consideration, a division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Sharmila Deshmukh quashed the two FIRs.