MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID) refused to share the call records where certain phone numbers were intercepted to authenticate complaints of corruption in police transfers and postings with the CBI citing lack of approval from the state government.
The SID, however, in its reply to the CBI, said that the records are safe and preserved on its server. These calls were recorded during the tenure of former state home minister Anil Deshmukh by then SID commissioner Rashmi Shukla.
Earlier, the CBI had issued notice to SID expressing its concern over the safety of recorded phone calls and asked for these to examine in a corruption case it is investigating against Deshmukh.
The present SID commissioner Ashutosh Dumbare wrote to the CBI on July 27, stating, “It is once again confirmed that the intercepted telephonic conversation, which is the subject matter of the investigation, have been and shall be preserved in the call recording server at SID and shall be provided, as desired, as soon as possible, subject to further directions received from the Maharashtra government in this regard.”
The SID told the CBI that “these records, digital and physical, have already been provided to the cyber police station of Mumbai police.”
Last year, Shukla was commissioner of Maharashtra’s SID when telephones of influential people were tapped by her department. Some of the people were politically connected and were allegedly heard discussing transfers and posting of police officers, including IPS officers, in exchange for money. Shukla had submitted a related report on the phone tapping to the government through then DGP Subodh Jaiswal, but no action was taken on it. Jaiswal and Shukla were not on good terms with the state government, and they opted for Central government deputation. Jaiswal is now CBI director.
Shukla is currently special director general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and her SID report was leaked recently after former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh made corruption allegations against Deshmukh in March. Singh is also facing investigations in extortion charges.
Earlier, former chief minister and leader of opposition in Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis had claimed that he had a copy of Shukla’s report which he had submitted to the Union home secretary, demanding a detailed inquiry on it. After this, the Maharashtra government asked the cyber police station of Mumbai police to investigate the leaking of the report.
The CBI is investigating the corruption case based on Singh’s letter to the chief minister alleging that Deshmukh had asked dismissed police officer Sachin Waze to illegally collect Rs 100 crore from bar owners in the city every month for him. The CBI wanted to examine Shukla’s report too in the case.
