A day after the Maharashtra Chief Secretary submitted a report to the Chief Minister ruling out wrongdoing in the transfers of police officers, an FIR was registered on Friday against unidentified persons for leaking confidential documents.
The FIR was registered on a complaint by the State Intelligence Department and invoked Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, Section 30 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Sections 43(b) and 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2008. The Cyber Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police is conducting further probe into the case.
Earlier this week, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis alleged a transfer scam citing a report on phone surveillance prepared by IPS officer Rashmi Shukla. Mr. Fadnavis on Friday denied that he leaked the confidential report and said he only waved the covering letter of the report before journalists. He accused Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and State Minister Nawab Malik of leaking the report.
Mr. Fadnavis also claimed that the Chief Secretary’s report was prepared by NCP ministers like Jitendra Awhad and Mr. Malik.
“I don’t believe that the report was prepared by a straight-forward officer like Sitaram Kunte. It was given to him by the ministers as it is full of errors. The report has not mentioned that phone tapping is allowed by law in case of ‘incitement of commencement of offence.’ This means the report is being fabricated,” Mr. Fadnavis said. The Anti-Corruption Bureau also undertakes phone tapping citing this law, he added.
However, the NCP ministers refuted Mr. Fadnavis’s allegations. Mr. Awhad said the BJP leader is demoralising the bureaucracy by rejecting Mr. Kunte’s report. “But I must thank him for accepting that I can write a report,” Mr. Awhad said.
Mr. Malik said Mr. Fadnavis was acting out of fear. “He is scared as an FIR has been registered over the leak of confidential reports. He was using Rashmi Shukla to destabilise the government. Not a single questionable transfer took place. He has to save his face now,” the NCP leader said.