Phone tapping case: Won't arrest IPS officer Shukla till next hearing, Police tells Bombay High Court

The Mumbai police told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that they would not take any coercive action or arrest IPS officer Rashmi Shukla till the next date of hearing of her plea challenging an FIR registered by the police in a case of alleged illegal phone tappingLast month the police issued two summons on April 26 and April 28 to Shukla asking her to appear before the BKC cyber department in Mumbai for recording her statement However Shukla had skipped the summonsThe case also pertains to alleged leaking of sensitive documents related to police postings Senior counsel Darius Khambata appearing for the police told a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale on Thursday that a team of the cyber cell police would be sent to Hyderabad where Shukla is presently posted to record her statement in the caseThe bench which was hearing Shuklas petition noted that the case pertains to offences under the Official Secrets Act the Information Technology Act and the Indian Telegraph Act which are punishable up to three years onlyThe petitioner is serving in Hyderabad She may have not been able to appear before the police here for questioning due to the Covid19 pandemic the HC saidWe will hear this petition after the summer vacation Until then it will be graceful on the state governmentrsquos part to make a statement that it would not take any coercive action Justice Shinde saidTo this Khambata said the police would not take any coercive action or arrest the petitioner till the next date of hearing of the petitionIt is a fairly important investigation We dont know when the Covid19 pandemic will end Hence the police are willing to send a team to Hyderabad where they could record the petitioners statement Khambata saidShuklarsquos counsel Mahesh Jethmalani said the IPS officer is willing to cooperate with the investigation into the case and the police team can record her statement in HyderabadThe court accepted the statement and posted the plea for hearing in JuneShukla a senior IPS officer of 1988 cadre approached the HC earlier this week seeking for the case to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI and also sought an interim order of no coercive actionThe approach of the State is to armtwist the petitioner by a bogus and frivolous case the plea alleged Shukla is currently serving as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Forces CRPF South Zone and is posted in HyderabadThe petition said Shukla had exposed the alleged nexus between ministers and politicians and other gross corruption involved in assigning postings to police officersInstead of applauding and appreciating the work of the petitioner the government authorities are involved in framing the petitioner in a false criminal case it allegedThe FIR was registered at the BKC cyber police station in Mumbai against unidentified persons for allegedly tapping phones illegally and leaking certain confidential documents on the complaint filed by the Maharashtra Intelligence DepartmentThe alleged tapping of phones had taken place when Shukla headed the state intelligence departmentBJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had cited a letter purportedly written by Shukla to the then Director General of Police about alleged corruption in police transfersThe letter also had details of intercepted calls leading to an uproar with leaders of the Shiv Senaled ruling coalition alleging that Shukla tapped phones withoutpermissionBefore registration of the FIR Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte had alleged in a report submitted to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray that it appears that Shukla herself had leaked the confidential report to FadnavisThis 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