Phone Snooping Row: Maharashtra Congress Chief Files Defamation Case

MUMBAI: Congress' Maharashtra unit President Nana F. Patole has filed a defamation case of Rs 500 crore against senior IPS officer and a former State Intelligence Department (SID) chief Rashmi Shukla for illegally tapping his phone.

Patole said it was necessary to get to the bottom of the matter and find out who is "the mastermind of the plot" enacted by Shukla - currently the Additonal DGP, CRPF, Hyderabad.

The suit has been filed before the Nagpur District and Sessions Court alleging harassment and blackmailing of people by snooping into their private lives and to dig out the person/s behind the conspiracy, he added.

Shukla, when she was the Pune Police Commissioner in 2016-2017, had ordered the illegal tapping of various politicians, including Patole, who was shown as a drug dealer with the name of 'Amjad Khan'.

"When I raised the matter in the Maharashtra Legislature, an inquiry committee was appointed which found Shukla guilty. Later, the Pune police have registered a case against her," said Patole.

However, though the police investigations are underway, Patole said that his "personal and public image has been severely damaged and can never be repaired", compelling him to file the defamation suit through the appropriate legal channels.

He said that illegal phone-tapping is a serious crime and can be done only with special permission to investigate serious cases like terrorism or drug-trafficking.

"We had nothing to do with such activities and it was a violation of our individual freedom and other rights. The then Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state conspired against me to trap in fake cases and systematically finish off my political career by misusing the government machinery," Patole said.

The illegal phone-tapping incidents, which erupted last year into a major political row between the Maha Vikas Aghadi government the opposition BJP, led to the filing of cases against Shukla in Mumbai and Pune.

Besides Patole, the phones of other prominent leaders like Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP leader Eknath Khadse and others in the MVA government were spied upon unauthorisedly, when Shukla was the SID head.

Top MVA leaders have also said the illegal phone tapping activities were carried out when the three parties were involved in the government formation exercise after the October 2018 Assembly elections which left the BJP out of power. (IANS)

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