Exposing the corrupt practices of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, the former Chief Minister and current Leader of Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday submitted all evidence to the Union Home Secretary pertaining to the alleged transfer posting racket of IPS and non-IPS officers of Maharashtra Police.
Whilst conducting a press conference on Tuesday, Fadnavis mentioned the letter of IPS officer Rashmi Shukla and how she had known about the malfeasance in the transfer of IPS and non-IPS officers and had undertaken investigations to back her claims. She had written the letter on August 25 last year and remarked that the posting and transfer racket had deep connections to the political class of leaders of Maharashtra.
“Commissioner of Intelligence, Rashmi Shukla, had come to know about a similar activity and sought proper permissions from then ACS (additional Chief Secretary), Home, and intercepted phone calls of several police officials and politicians,” said Fadnavis in the press conference.
Even in the petition filed before the apex court by former Mumbai Police chief Parambir Singh, the claims made by Fadnavis about Rashmi Shukla blowing the whistle on Uddhav Government’s alleged police transfers is corroborated.
Singh informed the apex court in his petition that Rashmi Shukla, Commissioner Intelligence, State Intelligence Department, had brought to the notice of the Director-General of Police, who in turn brought it to the knowledge of the state’s Additional Chief Secretary Home Department.
Demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter, Fadnavis claimed the Maharashtra Government did not act on an “incriminating” state intelligence department report containing audio intercepts of a “large scale corruption” in police transfers and postings.
“The conversation in the 6.3 GB data is all about home and police department alone. All the officials whose phone calls were recorded got the posts they lobbied for. This proves that calls intercepted by Shukla had important details,” Fadnavis claimed.
While those still trying to save the MVA government have claimed that Rashmi Shukla phone-tapping the politicians and police officials was illegal and that she is a BJP agent, the former CM rubbished those claims saying all the phone calls were recorded by Shukla with due permission from the state government.
Maharashtra minister and NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik rejected Fadnavis’ claims while terming them as “another attempt to bring down the MVA government”. Malik also tried to discredit Shukla by claiming that the data was illegally collected by her, at the same time accusing Shukla to be a BJP agent.
Malik said, “One person’s whim does not work here. Let Fadnavis share the data with anyone. It has been illegally collected by Rashmi Shukla, and if Fadnavis shares it with anyone, he would invite a legal action. I dare him to make the data public.”
“She prepared the call records illegally hence she was transferred as a punishment,” he added.
But despite the submission of the report to the Chief Minister in August 2020, no action was taken on the report, which further makes one believe that Uddhav Thackeray knew about the scam but instead choose to let is slid by idly.
With each passing day, Anil Deshmukh and Uddhav Thackeray are finding themselves in murky waters. The duo has single-handedly brought down the reputation of a police force that was once regarded as the ‘most professional police force’ out there. Meanwhile, whistle blower Rashmi Shukla and her claims about the corruption in the police transfer racket stands vindicated.
Any data that exposes the corruption should be treated as validly collected and should be treated as such. Thieves getting caught in action on illegally installed CCTV should be punished.