Mumbai: The phones of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and NCP leader Eknath Khadse were tapped on the pretext of them being anti-social elements, Mumbai Police claimed on Wednesday.
The phone of NCP politician Eknath Khadse was tapped for 67 days, while that of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut was tapped for 60 days, according to Mumbai Police.
Reacting to the development, Sanjay Raut said: “The then SID commissioner Rashmi Shukla falsely labelled all of us whose phones were tapped as anti-social elements during govt formation in 2019. Our privacy was breached. Centre is giving protection to such police officers who’re working for one party”.
Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena and Eknath Khadse of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), previously of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had their phones illegally tapped and kept under illegal surveillance for 67 and 60 days, respectively, according to FPJ.
When the Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID) was led by Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla, the leaders’ phones were allegedly monitored. The tapping is said to have occurred before the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) seized control in the state in November 2019, when the BJP was in power.
In connection with the illegal phone-tapping case against Shukla, Raut and Khadse recently recorded their statements. Shukla, who is currently on Central deputation and stationed as assistant director general of the CRPF in Hyderabad, has been charged in two FIRs, one each in Mumbai and Pune.
Khadse said that his phone was under surveillance for 60 days and Raut’s for 67 days. “My phone was kept under surveillance during the Assembly elections in 2019 when I was with the BJP. I had demanded a probe into phone-tapping,” Khadse said.
Without naming former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Khadse attacked him in connection with phone-tapping. The Congress has already claimed that phones of key political leaders were kept under surveillance allegedly because of instructions from Fadnavis. Patole has filed a Rs 500-crore defamation case against Shukla.
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