NCP seeks to know who asked IPS officer Rashmi Shukla to tap MVA leaders' phones

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday sought to know if the BJP `ordered' IPS officer Rashmi Shukla to tap the phones of leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.

It happened at a "crucial juncture" when a new government was taking shape in Maharashtra in 2019, said the state NCP's chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase.

"We suspect that phones were tapped illegally to provide critical information about the MVA to the BJP," he said.

Two FIRs have been registered against Shukla in Pune and Mumbai for allegedly tapping the phones of Congress leader Nana Patole, NCP leader Eknath Khadse and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut when she headed the state intelligence department.

"Now that an offense has been registered, people of Maharashtra would like to know at whose behest this illegal tapping was done. Did somebody from the BJP give instructions to Shukla to tap the phones of MVA leaders?" said Tapase.

The MVA, a coalition of the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP, came to power in 2019 after the Sena parted ways with the BJP.

The tapping was a gross violation of the Indian Telegraph Act, Tapase said, adding that there was no valid reason such as national emergency to warrant it.

Shukla is now posted in Hyderabad as additional director general, CRPF.