The Mumbai Police investigating the alleged phone tapping case against senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla submitted a chargesheet before the magistrate at Esplanade court on Tuesday. Although a similar FIR has been registered against Shukla in Pune for tapping state Congress president Nana Patole's phone calls, this is the first chargesheet that has been filed against her. The police said the chargesheet is about 750 pages long, in which they have included the statements of 18 crucial witnesses and other documentary evidence. The Colaba police had registered a case against Shukla on March 4 on the complaint of Additional Commissioner of Police Rajiv Jain (Special Branch). A case 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 Section 26 of the Telegraph Act was registered, following which, under the direction of the Bombay High Court, Shukla's statement was recorded by the police on March 16 and 23. The police, during investigation, learnt that Shukla had written to the government seeking permission before tapping the phone conversations of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and NCP's Eknath Khadse. In the letter, she had changed the names of Raut and Khadse to 'S Rahate' and 'Khadase', respectively, while alleging that tapping their phones were important, as they were involved in anti-social activities. Statements of Raut and Khadse have been included as witnesses in the chargesheet. A police officer said that one of the 18 witnesses is an assistant commissioner of police, who has worked under Shukla while she was serving as the State Intelligence Department (SID) commissioner. The officer is a crucial witness in the case, the officer added. "We have also attached a few important documents, which prove that the phone tapping was done purely with vested interest," said an officer, adding that the investigation has also revealed that phones of Khadse's personal assistant and another NCP worker were also tapped. The police have also charged Shukla with forgery, as they have included sections 465 (punishment for forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC in the FIR and also the chargesheet. In mid-2021, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government had appointed a three-member committee headed by then DGP Sanjay Pandey – who currently holds the post of Mumbai Police commissioner – to probe the allegations of phone tapping against Shukla. The committee identified Shukla's role in tapping the phone calls of Nana Patole, following which an FIR was registered against her in Pune on February 25. Shukla was Pune city police commissioner between March 2016 and July 2018, when she is alleged to have done the phone tapping.
