IPS Rashmi Shukla not named as accused, can't seek quashing of FIR: Maharashtra govt to Bombay High Court

The Maharashtra government has told the Bombay High Court that senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla has not been named as an accused in the case of alleged illegal phone tapping and leaking of confidential documents related to police transfers and postings and hence she cannot seek quashing of the FIRIn an affidavit filed on September 4 the government said the investigation only pertains to how sensitive and confidential information was unauthorisedly leaked to third parties from the State Intelligence Department SID and has got nothing to do with the contents of the said documentsIt further claimed that the offences are not in any way connected to the offences being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh The affidavit was submitted in response to a petition filed by Shukla seeking quashing of the FIR alleging that she was being made a scapegoat and targeted by the Maharashtra government for submitting a report on alleged corruption in police transfers and postingsThe affidavit filed by Rashmi Karandikar Deputy Commissioner of Police of the city polices crime branch said the FIR registered by the police is against unknown persons and hence the petitioner has no locus standi to file the plea seeking to quash the case The petition is not maintainable and ought to be dismissed on the ground that the petitioner has no locus as she is not named as an accused in the FIR the affidavit saidThe impugned FIR is registered against unknown persons and therefore the petitioner has erroneously proceeded on the basis that she has been purportedly falsely implicated in the case it said The state government added that the petitioner was issued notices to merely provide facts and information in the investigationIt further said that the FIR is for the commission of offences under the Official Secrets Act and the Information Technology Act As per the affidavit the offence is of unauthorised leakage of topsecret and confidential information obtained by the SID pursuant to technical surveillance The offence to be investigated is the leakage of information and has nothing to do with the contents of the information leaked it saidEven assuming without admitting that the sanctions were validly received for surveillance I state and submit that the information received pursuant to such surveillance constitutes information contemplated under the Official Secrets Act and thus leakage of such information constitutes an offence the affidavit saidIt added that the information that was kept in the servers of the State Intelligence Department was downloaded and copied to a pendrive and then unauthorisedly leaked to a third party without information This leak constitutes a cognizable offence under the Information Technology Act the affidavit claimedShukla in her plea filed through senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani and advocate Gunjan Mangla had claimed that the SID had taken requisite permissions from the Additional Chief Secretary of the state government prior to the surveillance The affidavit however claimed that as per a report prepared by the additional chief secretary on March 25 2021 he additional chief secretary was misguided as to the purpose for which the permission was soughtThe government also refuted Shuklas allegations that the FIR was filed as an act of vendetta The petitioners contentions are misconceived and wholly devoid of merit it said A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamadar will hear the petition on September 13 Shukla is currently serving as the additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Forces South Zone and is posted in HyderabadAlso Read Elgar Parishad case No NIA action till HC hears Varavara Raos medical bail extension plea on Sep 6In her plea she said she had exposed the alleged nexus between ministers and politicians and other gross corruption involved in assigning postings to police officers The FIR was registered at the BKC Cyber police station in Mumbai against unidentified persons for allegedly tapping phones illegally and leaking certain confidential documents and information The alleged phone tapping had taken place last year when Shukla headed the SIDThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever