Mumbai police have issued a notice to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, asking him to appear before them in connection with a case of alleged illegal phone tapping. Fadnavis, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, has been summoned to the BKC Cyber Cell at 11 am on Sunday.
In a press conference on Saturday, Fadnavis said, “I was home minister [of Maharashtra] earlier. And even if a fake case has been registered, I will go [to the police].
“But as Leader of Opposition, I have some privileges and no one can ask me the source of information,” he added.
READ: Devendra Fadnavis drops 125-hour video, says Maharashtra govt framing BJP leaders
Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis also said that he was surprised that the state government “did nothing for six months” on the transfer posting scam. “Instead, they want to catch someone who exposed this scam,” he told reporters in Mumbai.
“The notice is served to me because I exposed the MVA government. I demand that the investigation of this [phone tapping case] should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. The state government cannot conduct a proper probe in such cases,” Devendra Fadnavis said.
He added, “The state is trying to pressure me because I had exposed the scam of transfer in the state police force…I have more proof with me, which I will hand over to the CBI only. I will cooperate with the Mumbai police in tomorrow’s probe as well.”
As per news agency PTI, the notice issued to Fadnavis mentions that “questionnaires were earlier sent to him in sealed envelopes in connection with the case, but he did not respond to them”.
One official said that as many as two notices and three letters were sent to Devendra Fadnavis, seeking his reply and asking him to appear before Mumbai police.
— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) March 12, 2022
PHONE TAPPING CASE
On the basis of a complaint by the State Intelligence Department (SID), a case was registered under the Official Secrets Act at Mumbai’s BKC cyber police station last year against unidentified persons for allegedly illegally tapping phones and leaking confidential information.
Even before the FIR was registered, the then Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte had in his inquiry report accused IPS officer Rashmi Shukla of leaking the confidential report.
The IPS officer, who was granted interim relief from arrest by the Bombay HC on Friday, has been accused of illegally tapping the phones of politicians and senior officials when she was chief of the State Intelligence Department (SID).
In May of last year, a team from the Mumbai cyber police had recorded Rashmi Shukla’s statement in Hyderabad in connection with the case.