Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe on Monday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party`s Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis had introduced a `Gujarat brand` of surveillance tactics in Maharashtra and demanded a through probe into the matter.
His demand came amid the backdrop of the FIR lodged on February 26 by the Pune police against former city Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla in the illegal phone-tapping case.
“IPS officer Rashmi Shukla is merely a pawn. The real culprits are those who guided her. Fadnavis was the state chief minister and he implemented the `Gujarat surveillance model` in Maharashtra,” Londhe said here.
His comments also endorsed state party president Nana Patole`s demand on Sunday that the role of Fadnavis — who was handling the home portfolio during the relevant period — must be investigated in the illegal phone tapping case.
In a significant development on Saturday, the Bundgarden Police booked Shukla, currently Additional Director-General, CRPF, at Hyderabad, in the unauthorised phone-tapping case that rocked the state polity last year, leading to the resignation and subsequent arrest of former Nationalist Congress Party`s home minister Anil Deshmukh.
The FIR against Shukla followed a recommendation by a state government panel headed by ex-DGP Sanjay Pandey, invoking the Indian Telegraph Act, Section 26 and other laws for tapping phones of prominent opposition leaders between March 2016-July 2018.
Speaking to the media here, Londhe charged that the `Gujarat surveillance model` — in which the government of the adjoining state allegedly snooped on people and overheard their private conversations — was introduced in Maharashtra by Fadnavis.
“After 2017, the phone numbers of Patole, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress leaders, ministers, certain BJP leaders and their ministers, top bureaucrats and others were tapped illegally. The snooping was ostensibly to link them with drug dealers,” said Londhe.
Patole had raised the issue in the Assembly in the past and it finally culminated in the FIR against Shukla, who was the Additional DGP, Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID).
Although the case has been lodged against Shukla, what is pertinent is to unravel who ordered the phone-tapping, what was the purpose, whom did she hand over the records of the phone conversations, how did it reach Fadnavis after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to power in November 2019.
“There are many such questions, and the government should extend the probe to cover even Fadnavis which will reveal the real masterminds,” Londhe said.
Patole said that “Shukla would not have dared to indulge in illegal phone-tapping without the blessings of a senior government functionary” and it was imperative to investigate Fadnavis` role and bring it in the public domain.
Referring to how his own phones were tapped and how he was given a fake identity, or having links with the drug mafia, Patole said these were intended to browbeat the opposition leaders and legislators at an opportune time.
“Phone-tapping can be done only with special permission to investigate serious matters like terror or narcotics, but our phone conversations were overheard despite us having not a remote connection to such crime,” Patole pointed out.
Referring to how the BJP at the Centre was allegedly using the Pegasus software for spying on ruling or opposition parties` leaders, ministers, judiciary and the media, Patole said it is imperative to probe the role of Fadnavis completely in the Maharashtra phone-tapping case.
In March 2021, after Fadnavis raised a hue and cry over the phone-tapping issue, pointing to an alleged racket in the transfers-postings in the police department, the SID lodged a complaint with the Mumbai Police.
Fadnavis` contentions came after a Top Secret report submitted by Shukla to the then DGP Subodh Jaiswal on August 23, 2020, which he (Fadnavis) later followed up with the Centre demanding a CBI probe into the thriving transfers-promotions racket.
