The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea by senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla seeking quashing of an FIR registered by the Mumbai police under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 in the phone tapping case and pleading for the transfer of the case to the CBI.
Holding that there was merit in the contentions made by the Mumbai police, a HC division bench of Justice Nitin M Jamdar and Justice Sarang V Kotwal ruled: “... the impugned FIR prima facie discloses cognisable offences. Since the FIR discloses a cognisable offence, the police have a duty to investigate. No ground is made out to quash the FIR and to prevent any further investigation. The prayer for transfer of the Investigation to CBI on the ground that the CBI is investigating the postings of the Police Officers is without merit as both the investigations are different”.
The petition pertained to an FIR registered by the police at the BKC Cyber Police Station on March 26 based on a complaint filed by the State Intelligence Department (SID) against unknown persons for the alleged illegal phone tapping and invoked sections of the Official Secrets Act, Information Technology Act and Indian Telegraph Act. Before the BKC police registered an FIR in the phone tapping case, the then Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte had claimed in a report submitted to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray that “it appears that Ms. Shukla herself had leaked the confidential report (to the former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis)”.
An IPS officer from 198 batch, Rashmi Shukla is currently Additional Director General (ADG) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) based in Hyderabad.
“We find merit in the contention of the Respondent – State that two investigations are two different. The complaint in the present FIR is of an unauthorised leak of the official secret documents. It may be that the investigation based on the truth or veracity of the contents of the documents will lead to a different result. However, it is a different investigation to ascertain how and whether official secret documents were leaked
“Even if the contents of the documents are true and correct, the illegal leakage of the official document will still constitute an offence. Thus, the alleged offence concerning the illegal handling of the official confidential document is different from the investigation carried out by the CBI in respect of FIR dated 21 April 2021. It is separate from the present FIR, and the outcome of both the investigation need not depend on each other,” the two Judges noted.
In its ruling, the HC bench held that “the transfers and postings of the Police Officers referred to in unnumbered paragraph 5 are linked to the allegation of abuse of official position by the then Home Minister and others.”
The HC bench clarified that its and the earlier orders of this Court are not to be construed as unfettered authority to CBI to inquire into transfers and postings of the Police Officers generally, which do not reflect upon the alleged act and conduct expressly attributed to the then Home Minister and others. After clarifying the same, the Division Bench reiterated that the present Writ Petition, which was pending, would be decided on its own merits.“This division bench has already made it clear that all aspects of police transfers are not handed over to the CBI to investigate.