The ongoing investigation into the alleged illegal phone-tapping by IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has revealed that phones of Shiv Sena MP Sanay Raut and former BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who joined NCP, were allegedly kept under illegal surveillance for 67 and 60 days respectively before the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the state. This was confirmed by a Home Department official and also by Khadse.
Raut and Khadse recently recorded their statements in connection with the illegal phone-tapping case against Shukla. Two FIRs – one each in Mumbai and Pune – have been filed against Shukla who is presently on Central deputation and posted as additional director general of CRPF in Hyderabad.
A senior Home Department official told this newspaper, “Sanjay Raut's phone was tapped for seven days on an emergency basis, and the second time it was done for 60 days with the permission of the additional chief secretary (Home). The bureaucrat in his statement said that the names of Khadse and Raut were in the request for phone-tapping from the State Intelligence Department (SID).” “Importantly, the request was made by the SID by changing the names of Khadse and Raut during the BJP rule. Besides, the phones of Congress leaders Nana Patole, independent legislator Bachu Kadu, and former legislator Ashish Deshmukh were also tapped illegally,” he said.
Khadse said that his phone was under surveillance for 60 days and Raut’s for 67 days. “My phone was kept under surveillance during the Assembly elections in 2019 when I was with the BJP. I had demanded a probe into phone-tapping,” Khadse said.
Without naming former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Khadse attacked him in connection with phone-tapping. The Congress has already claimed that phones of key political leaders were kept under surveillance allegedly because of instructions from Fadnavis. Patole has filed a Rs 500-crore defamation case against Shukla.
