Mumbai:The Maharashtra government has directed the state police to transfer to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe two cases, including an alleged phone tapping case in which the statement of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was earlier recorded, an official said.
The second case involves Girish Mahajan, another BJP leader, and former state minister, who faces the charge of extortion and criminal intimidation, he said. “The state government has issued an order for the transfer of probe in these two cases, but the Mumbai police are yet to get it,” the official said.
IPS officer Rashmi Shukla is accused of tapping the phones of political leaders and senior officials illegally when she was chief of the State Intelligence Department (SID) in 2019.
Mumbai police had in 2021 registered the first information report (FIR) under sections of the Official Secrets Act at the BKC Cyber police station against unidentified persons for alleged phone tapping of political leaders and senior officials and leaking of confidential documents. A complaint about it was lodged by the SID.
Fadnavis, who was the chief minister between 2014 and 2019, had cited a letter purportedly written by Shukla to the then Maharashtra Director General of Police about alleged corruption in transfers in the police department. The letter also had details of intercepted phone calls, which led to an uproar among leaders of the then Shiv Sena-led ruling coalition, who alleged that the phones were without permission.