Mumbai: Contrary to wild speculation that Rashmi Shukla, a Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, has been "appointed" as the new Director General of Police in Maharashtra, a home department official clarified that no formal decision has been taken yet in that regard.
Most likely a formal announcement of the new chief will be made on Monday, the official added.
Who is IPS Rashmi Shukla?
Shukla is an IPS officer of the 1988 batch belonging to the Maharashtra cadre. IPS Vivek Phansalkar, police commissioner of Mumbai, is also in the run for the prestigious post of DGP. Phansalkar is an officer acceptable to both the ruling Maha Yuti government and the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi. As commissioner, he has taken several effective steps to improve the law and order situation in Mumbai. Given his tactful handling of tense situations, it is felt that he will be the ideal choice for the DGP's post in the context of the ongoing agitation for Maratha reservation and the opposition to it by OBCs.
Before being posted on a central deputation, Shukla had held several crucial posts in Maharashtra, including that of Pune police commissioner and director of the state intelligence wing. However, two FIRs were filed against her for allegedly tapping the phones of opposition leaders. However, the Bombay High Court recently quashed both the two phone-tapping cases.
Shukla came under scanner in phone-tapping case
Shukla faced charges in the first FIR in Mumbai for tapping the phones of Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray faction leader Sanjay Raut and Eknath Khadse, a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In the second FIR in Pune, she was alleged to have tapped the phones of Nana Patole, state Congress president.
She has also been accused of leaking a classified report that exposed a nexus between some police officers and middlemen who offered transfers and postings for money. The complaint stated that she leaked a confidential report she had prepared in 2020 when she was the Commissioner of the State Intelligence Department (SID). However, Shukla has denied any wrongdoing and claimed that she acted in the interest of national security and public service.
