Shinde govt set to transfer to CBI probe into phone-tap cases

MUMBAI: Nearly two years after the state government withdrew the general consent granted to CBI to probe cases in Maharshtra , the one-month-old Eknath Shinde-Fadnavis government is in the process of transferring two cases — one on alleged leak of confidential information on call recordings of middlemen on transfers and postings and second one of extortion against BJP leader Girish Mahajan to the CBI.
Former home minister Dilip Walse Patil expressed shock and surprise over the decision of the Shinde government to entrust the probe to the CBI without assigning any reasons. “I am really surprised. Prima facie, it appears that Shinde and Fadnavis have lost faith in the state law enforcing agencies. Fadnavis himself led the state police for five years when he was the CM,’’ Walse Patil told TOI.
There are three cases in the state linked to the tapping of phones of politicians and middlemen during the tenure of IPS officer Rashmi Shukla as the state intelligence chief.
Meanwhile, the CBI will probe the FIR against Girish Mahajan and 28 others who were booked on charges of extortion, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, causing hurt to extort confession or property, forgery and theft based on a complaint filed by one Vijay Patil, a lawyer and one of the directors of Jilha Maratha Vidyaprasarak Sahakari Samaaj, a cooperative educational institute in Jalgaon.