Maharashtra govt rejects Colaba police’s proposal to prosecute IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in ‘phone-tapping’ case

However, after the formation of the Eknath Shinde-led government, the police wrote to the court informing them that they are seeking permission under section 197 of CrPC. As per provisions of section 197 of CrPC, a sanction is required from the competent authority to prosecute public servants if an act they are alleged to have committed directly concerns their official duty. The sanctioning authority is required to consider all the material put before it to decide on whether a sanction to prosecute the person can be recommended.

A senior police official confirmed that the government rejected the sanction. “It has reached the Mumbai police commissionerate and soon it will be submitted in court,” said a police official.

An FIR was registered against Shukla at the Colaba police station earlier this year under the Indian Telegraph Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The case was registered following a complaint by Additional Commissioner of Police Rajiv Jain, accusing Shukla of having put the phone numbers of NCP leader Eknath Khadse and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut under surveillance.

The alleged illegal phone tapping had taken place when Shukla headed State Intelligence Department (SID) during the rule of the previous BJP-Sena government.

The Colaba police’s chargesheet included statements of 18 witnesses and other documentary evidence. Witnesses in the case are Khadse, Raut, former additional chief secretary and other personnel who worked in SID when Shukla was incharge.

Shukla was then booked under sections 165 (Public servant obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servant), 465 (punishment for forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC and section 26 of the Telegraph Act.

Soon after the formation of the Shinde-led government in the state, a new investigating officer was appointed to probe the case following which a proposal to seek prosecution sanction was moved.