In a reprieve for IPS officer Rashmi Shukla, the Bombay High Court has granted her protection from coercive action till April 1 in the second FIR lodged against her by Colaba police in the alleged illegal phone tapping case.
A division bench of justices PB Varale and SM Modak on Friday granted her relief till April 1 and has asked her to appear before the police on March 16 and 23 for recording her statement.
The HC was hearing a petition filed by Shukla seeking quashing of the second FIR registered against her in Mumbai. On March 5, the Colaba police filed an FIR in which Shukla is accused of tapping the phone calls of Shiv Sena and NCP leaders.
Her counsels – Mahesh Jethmalani and Sameer Nangre – said that the IPS officer will cooperate with the probe and will appear before the Colaba police on March 16 pursuant to the summons issued to her.
The HC has also asked her to appear on March 23 for recording her statement.
Her plea contended that the FIR is “false and entirely fabricated for political expediency”.
She has contended in her petition that she is being singled out again. Further, she has said that the FIR was lodged after Sanjay Pandey took over as Mumbai Commissioner of Police and is based on a report he submitted earlier.
The period of offence is between 2018- 2020 when she was heading the State Intelligence Department where she continued till September 2021 and no illegality was found with her actions then.
Her petition alleges that the “unfounded and erroneous” report of Sanjay Pandey “unfairly targets and appropriates singular blame” on her, thereby echoing a political line of attack claiming that the FIR contends that the petitioner deliberately and with undue political motives conducted technical surveillance on certain political persons.
Shukla has said that because of her phone-tap report of August 2020 against the alleged corruption in police postings and transfers, the state is harassing her by lodging multiple FIRs against her.
Earlier, on March 4, the HC had granted her protection from coercive action till further orders in the alleged phone tapping case registered against her in Bund Garden police station at Pune observing that prima facie there was a delay in registering the FIR and that the IPS officer was being singled out.
The HC will hear both the petitions, seeking quashing of FIRs at Bund Garden police station and at Colaba police station, on April 1.
Shukla is currently serving as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), South Zone, and is posted in Hyderabad. She was heading the State Intelligence Unit at the relevant time.
