MVA leaders’ phones tapped in 2019 labelling them as drug peddlers: Sanjay Raut

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said that he and other leaders in Maharashtra were falsely labelled as anti-social elements and their phones were tapped in late 2019 during the formation of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.

Raut claimed that Indian police service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla tapped MVA leaders’ phones to prove loyalty to a political party and accused the Centre of giving protection to her.

The Sena chief spokesperson’s phone along with that of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse and Congress’s Nana Patole were tapped, Raut claimed adding that the privacy of the political leaders in Maharashtra was breached.

“Whether it was me, Eknath Khadse or Nana Patole, we were falsely labelled anti-social elements. Rashmi Shukla (former head of the State Intelligence Department) sought permission to tap our phone; the phone numbers were ours but the names against them were of some drug peddlers, gang-runners, etc. By this, our privacy was breached as they wanted to snoop on us to know the development about the formation of MVA,” Raut told reporters in Mumbai.

An FIR against Shukla, who is now on central deputation, was filed in March under the Indian Telegraph Act and the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. Targetting the Centre over the phone tapping incident, Raut added, “The police officer, whom we expect to work neutrally, was working to show loyalty to a leader or a party. The officer is now being given protection by the Centre, which is unfortunate.”

Additional commissioner of police (special branch) Rajiv Jain is the complainant in the case, in which Shukla is accused of tapping the phone calls of Raut and Khadse.

Colaba police on March 13 questioned Rashmi Shukla for about two-and-a-half hours in connection with the third illegal telephone tapping case registered against her.

The 57-year-old IPS officer, currently posted as additional director general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Hyderabad, has two more FIRs registered against her – one registered by Mumbai cyber police for allegedly leaking her report on purported corruption in police transfers and postings in Maharashtra and another by Pune police for allegedly tapping the phone of Congress leader Nana Patole.

Colaba police has booked Shukla under section 165 (public servant obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from a person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 26 of the Telegraph Act.

Shukla has moved the Bombay high court for quashing of the FIR and the court on March 11 granted her interim protection from arrest.