Bombay High Court Asks Maharahstra Govt If It Will Give CBI Rashmi Shukla's Report

The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra Government to state by Tuesday the documents it would be willing to give the Central Bureau of Investigation in the agency's ongoing probe against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh. "We request you to see what documents you are willing to give otherwise, we will see what to do…" Justice SS Shinde leading the bench, told Senior Counsel Rafique Dada for the State. The bench said that the State could contend misuse of the documents after they shared the documents and not before. Dada assured the court he would come back with a response by Tuesday. A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar heard CBI's application against the State's non-cooperation in handing over former State Intelligence Department (SID) head Rashmi Shukla's letter, along with its report with its annexures. Shukla had intercepted certain phone calls to authenticate complaints of corruption in police transfers and postings. On Friday, the CBI's counsel, ASG Aman Lekhi argued that the State refused to hand over the documents even after the HC dismissed the State and Anil Deshmukh's challenge to their FIR on July 22. "There is an obstinate refusal to supply the report. Every conceivable attempt to frustrate the investigation is being made. Their reply was misconceived," he argued. Soon after Dada began his arguments, Justice Jamadar said, that the State had approached the High Court for quashing two paragraphs in CBI's FIR. "We need to go back…The trigger to approached HC was two requisitions by the CBI, 1. Rashmi Shukla's report and the minutes of the meeting of the Police Establishment Board. The copies of those two letters were annexed to your petition, and you said that by misconstruing HC's earlier order the documents are sought. You didn't succeed. We made certain clarifications regarding the scope of the investigation, but our order doesn't say the two documents are not relevant. Our order says that even if those documents are given, the CBI cannot use them to enter into an unfetted investigation and look into each transfer." In response, Dada said that the court ordered the use of only those documents that can have a nexus with Deshmukh. "This situation will arise once you share the documents. Thereafter, they will take action, and at that stage if the action is found to be excessive, we will look into it. At this stage not sharing documents…. these two documents we cannot object to." Justice Jamadar continued. CBI's plea states that it had written a letter to the State Intelligence Department (SID) seeking details of Shukla's communication, but it was refused on the grounds that the document was part of an ongoing investigation. "This was in clear violation of the order of the High Court which categorically had refused a stay on their order and no such order had yet been obtained from the Supreme Court," the CBI said. The plea further read that, "In view of the constant hindrance of the State government to the investigation, the CBI has sought for directions to the Maharashtra government to provide documents sought by CBI and to hand over a copy of the documents sought." However, the Maharashtra Government has accused the CBI of "pressurising" it to part with documents "not relevant" to their ongoing investigation in their affidavit. The State, through Joint Secretary, Home Department Kailas Gaikwad has said that according to the HC's order, the CBI could not only investigate transfer postings connected to Deshmukh. The CBI had registered an FIR on April 21, following Bombay HC's orders to conduct a Preliminary Enquiry into the Rs. 100 crore corruption allegations against Deshmukh was levelled by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh in his letter to the Chief Minister on March 20, 2021. Case Title: State v. Central Bureau of Investigation

Bombay High Court Asks Maharahstra Govt If It Will Give CBI Rashmi Shukla's Report

Sharmeen Hakim

The Bombay High Court made it clear that the State could contend misuse of the documents only after they shared the documents with CBI and not before.

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