Mumbai: Bombay High Court in case of taking any coercive step against senior Indian Police Service officer Rashmi Shukla (IPS Officer Rashmi Shukla) for alleged phone-tapping and leaking of sensitive documents. (Maharashtra Government) was directed on Wednesday to give him seven days notice.
A division bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Sarang Kotwal also dismissed Shukla’s plea seeking quashing of the FIR lodged by the Mumbai Police and transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He is not named in the FIR. Shukla is presently Additional Director General of Police, Central Reserve Police Force (South Zone) and posted in Hyderabad. Shukla was heading the Maharashtra Intelligence Department when the alleged phone tapping took place last year.
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The bench, in its order on Shukla’s plea, said, “Both the requests—cancellation of the FIR and transfer of the case to the CBI—are dismissed.” If the State Government intends to take any coercive action against the petitioner (Shukla), it will have to give seven days notice to the petitioner. In October this year, the Maharashtra government had informed the High Court that Rashmi Shukla was not named as an accused in the case but had sufficient material for investigation against her.
Shukla, in his petition, had alleged that he was being made a scapegoat and the Maharashtra government was targeting him for preparing a report on alleged corruption in police department transfers and postings. The FIR was registered at Mumbai’s BKC Cyber Police Station in March this year against unidentified persons for alleged illegal phone tapping and leaking of certain confidential documents and information.