Were instructed to focus on Raut’s talks with ‘saheb’, says SID official
MUMBAI: A policeman posted with Maharashtra’s State Intelligence Department (SID), who monitored the calls of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, was “instructed” to focus on the Rajya Sabha MP’s phone conversations with “Saheb” and submit reports to his seniors, his statement submitted to the Mumbai police has contended.
The statement did not clarify who he meant by “Saheb”. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is referred to as “Saheb” among Sena workers, as is Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, by his cadre.
The Mumbai police, which is probing an alleged illegal phone-tapping exercise overseen by senior Indian Police Services (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla in 2019, who headed the SID at the time, submitted a 700-page charge sheet to the 8th metropolitan magistrate court on April 26. The police officer’s statement forms part of the charge sheet.
“At the fag-end of the year 2019, the mobile phone of Sanjay Raut was kept under surveillance. I have myself heard his calls. Those were mostly about meeting political leaders and organising meetings, visiting places like Sahyadri (the state guest house), Silver Oak (the Malabar Hill residence of NCP’s Pawar) and Matoshree (the private residence of CM Thackeray),” the statement read.
“We were instructed to pay attention to the calls, especially those in which he (Raut) spoke about or with ‘Saheb,” it read.
The phone-tapping exercise allegedly occurred in late 2019, when the Sena was in talks with the NCP and Congress to form the Maharashtra government.
Maharashtra BJP vice president Madhav Bhandari said, “The case is being tried in the court and let court decide on it. However, can MVA leaders surely say that the phone tapping does not happen now or it was not the practice before 2014? When our leaders exposed IPL (Indian Premier League) scam a decade ago, their phones were under surveillance...”
Raut did not respond to phone calls or text messages seeking a comment.
Shukla, a 1988-batch IPS officer, is currently on central deputation and is posted as the additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) (South Zone) in Hyderabad, remained unreachable for comment.
Last week, Raut had claimed that his phone as well as that of six- time legislator Eknath Khadse, who had left the BJP in October 2020 and had subsequently joined the NCP, was tapped in 2019 for 60 and 67 days, respectively, under the pretext that they were “anti-social elements”.
The charge sheet filed in the magistrate court says that there are substantial reasons to believe that the phone tapping was possibly done on instructions of a political leader or to benefit a political party. It further states that Shukla had “illegally” secured permission for surveillance from the home department by changing the name of Raut to “S Rahate”, and that of Khadse to “Khadasne”.