Phone tapping case: Mumbai police record Sanjay Raut's statement

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police probing the illegal phone tapping case against senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla on Saturday recorded the statement of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, an official said.

Raut's statement was recorded as a witness by officials of Colaba police station at the office of Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' in Central Mumbai, a day after a notice was served to him in this regard, the official said.

The official said Raut's phone was allegedly tapped two times in 2019 by the state Intelligence Department, which was then headed by Shula, when talks about the formation of the MVA government comprising Sena, NCP and Congress were on after the results of the state Assembly polls.

Earlier, Mumbai Police had recorded the statement of Nationalist Congress Party leader Eknath Khadse in the case as his phone was also allegedly tapped during the same period, the official said.

Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil had last month claimed that the phones of four elected representatives were tapped between 2015 and 2019 in the garb that they were drug peddlers.

The Maharashtra government had set up a three-member panel headed by the then Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey to conduct an inquiry into the alleged phone tapping.

Shukla, who was posted as Pune police commissioner between March 2016 and July 2018, is presently on central deputation and posted as additional director general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad.

The FIR was filed against Shukla under relevant sections of the Indian Telegraph Act for alleged illegal tapping of phones of politicians between 2015 and 2019 during her tenure as the Pune police commissioner.