Mumbai: The CBI has submitted a closure report in a case filed by the Mumbai Police during the MVA government’s term to investigate the alleged data leak of intercepted calls in which the statement of then opposition leader and present Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was recorded.
The closure report submitted by the central agency to the magistrate court in Mumbai states that there is no evidence to proceed with the case. The state intelligence department (SID) gave its no-objection, following which, the court has posted the plea for orders.
FIR Filed In March 2022
An FIR that was registered by the SID at the cyber police station on March 26, 2022, referred to a press conference by then Leader of Opposition Fadnavis on March 23, 2022, where he spoke about calls between senior police officers and a private person. Fadnavis claimed that there was heavy lobbying for plum postings by police officers in exchange for money with politicians in the MVA government.
Data Contained Copy Of Confidential Communication
The FIR, which was registered against unknown persons under various sections of the Officials Secret Act, Indian Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act, alleged that Fadnavis had also shown a pendrive stating that it had more than 6 GB of data related to the calls.
It stated that a copy of a confidential communication between the then SID commissioner Rashmi Shukla and the then DGP Subodh Jaiswal, who retired last month as the CBI chief, was also referred to in the press conference.
The case was transferred to CBI in July 2022 after the change in Maharashtra government last year and the FIR was re-registered by the CBI in August 2022 for further probe.
