Pune:
Maharashtra NCP chief and minister Jayant Patil on Tuesday asked who gave a senior police official the permission for phone tapping which the BJP has claimed revealed corruption in transfers and postings in the police department.
Speaking to reporters in Sangli, Patil asked if the official who carried out phone tapping had taken permission from the concerned authorities.
“On whose directions was the phone tapping done? Who had given the right to (then Commissioner of Intelligence) Rashmi Shukla to tap the phones? Was permission to tap phones taken? All this needs to be investigated,” he said.
The State Intelligence Department (SID) is a sensitive wing of the police and it is a serious issue if communication between its chief and a DGP came out in the open, Patil said.
A question also arises about how the previous BJP-led government used the SID, the senior minister added.
“In the report the Leader of Opposition (Devendra Fadnavis) has cited, several things are false. All transfers had taken place as per the establishment board’s directives,” the NCP leader said.
Patil also dismissed the BJP’s demand that President’s rule be imposed in the state.
Fadnavis did a good job as Leader of Opposition in the recently-held Assembly session but insistence on imposition of President’s Rule will make the BJP look greedy for power “and that kind of image is not good for the BJP”, he said.
Earlier in the day, Fadnavis claimed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) 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 former Maharashtra CM said he had “6.3 GB data” of the calls intercepted by then Commissioner of Intelligence Rashmi Shukla with due permissions, where names of several key police officers were discussed.
