In its reply to the discharge utility moved by IPS officer Rashmi Shukla within the alleged cellphone tapping case, the Mumbai Police on Wednesday mentioned the state authorities had refused to grant sanction to prosecute her and they won’t problem the choice.
The courtroom is awaiting a response from the prosecutor on the plea, following which it’ll hear arguments and go an order on whether or not Shukla might be discharged from the case.
In January, Shukla had moved the discharge plea earlier than the Justice of the Peace’s courtroom stating that the police had filed a chargesheet with out acquiring or making use of for applicable sanction. Her plea had mentioned that the Maharashtra authorities had rejected the proposal to grant sanction to prosecute her and therefore, there have been no grounds to proceed the case in opposition to her.
The courtroom had requested the Mumbai Police investigating officer and the prosecutor to file their replies to her plea. On Wednesday, whereas the prosecutor was absent, the investigating officer submitted his reply.
The one-page reply said that after an FIR lodged by the Colaba police on March 4, 2022, a chargesheet was filed. Following this, the police had sought a sanction from the state authorities underneath Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) since Shukla is a serving public servant. It added that the federal government had rejected the police’s proposal to grant sanction to prosecute Shukla and it’ll not problem the choice.
Under Section 197 of the CrPC, a sanction is required to prosecute public servants from a reliable authority.
Last March, the police had lodged an FIR in opposition to Shukla alleging that she had tapped cellphone conversations of NCP chief Eknath Khadse after which Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut.
On April 26, 2022, the police had filed a 750-page chargesheet in opposition to Shukla stating that when she was serving because the State Intelligence Department commissioner, she had sought permission from then extra chief secretary (Home) to faucet the telephones of the 2 leaders by claiming that the telephones belonged to 2 different people. Shukla had approached the Bombay High Court denying the allegations.