Phone-tapping: BJP workers protest as police record Devendra Fadnavis' statement

Mumbai, March 13

BJP workers on Sunday held demonstrations in various parts of Maharashtra and set on fire copies of a notice issued by the Mumbai police to Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis in connection with the probe into the leak of confidential information on corruption in police transfers and alleged illegal tapping of phones.

A team of the BKC cyber police in Mumbai recorded Fadnavis’ statement for almost two hours on Sunday at his residence.

Several BJP leaders, including MLA Nitesh Rane, MLCs Prasad Lad and Pravin Darekar and party leader Kripashankar Singh, gathered outside Fadnavis’ residence in south Mumbai, where a team of the BKC cyber police reached around noon to record the latter’s statement.

BJP workers staged protests and burnt copies of the police notice in Pune, Pandharpur (in Solapur district), Nagpur, Chandrapur, Sangli, Thane and Palghar.

IPS officer Rashmi Shukla is accused of tapping phones of select political leaders and senior officials illegally when she was chief of the State Intelligence Department. Fadnavis had cited a letter purportedly written by her to the then Maharashtra DGP about the alleged corruption in transfers in the police department.

Speaking to mediapersons on Sunday, Nitesh Rane alleged the notice was issued to Fadnavis out of vendetta. “Anyone who speaks against Dawood Ibrahim is targeted by the state government and a notice is issued to him,” Rane said.

He was referring to Fadnavis’ allegation that Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, had links with the fugitive underworld don. —