Mumbai court asks Union home ministry to hand over papers given by Devendra Fadnavis

In a major setback to the Union government, Mumbai's Killa Court has ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs to hand over the documents and pen drive given to it by former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The Maharashtra government has sought these through Mumbai police's Cyber Cell, in connection with the documents leaked from the State Intelligence Department (SID) during IPS Rashmi Shukla's tenure. The court has ordered the ministry to hand over the documents and pen drive to Mumbai police's Cyber Cell for investigation within 10 days.

The Cyber Cell had investigated the case under the Official Secrets Act to find who stole the confidential documents from the SID office during Shukla's tenure and handed them to Fadnavis. The Cyber Cell wrote to the MHA this year in May seeking the documents and pen drive submitted to it by Fadnavis, but the ministry had refused to do so, saying the demands made by the state were very vague, since they know what is there in the documents. The state then moved the court in October and also informed it that Fadnavis was their star witness in this case, but he was not appearing before them despite summons issued to him. However, Fadnavis told mid-day that he has not received any summons, but some questions from the Cyber Cell which he will answer at the right time.

Param Bir Singh also levelled allegations against Deshmukh

The tussle between the state and Centre started after Fadnavis, in a press conference in Delhi this year in March, showed a document and a pen drive claiming that then Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was running a postings racket. He also claimed that phones were tapped by Shukla during her tenure and she had informed the state what was found due to this but nothing happened. Fadnavis had submitted the documents and pen drive to the MHA.

More allegations

At the same time, former Mumbai Police chief Param Bir Singh also dropped a bombshell on the state by writing a letter to the CM, levelling allegations against Deshmukh of extorting money from bars and establishments with a target of around Rs 100 crore per month. After this, an advocate, Jayshree Patil, gave a complaint to the Mumbai police to investigate both the cases - of IPS transfer postings and Singh's allegations. After a huge political face off between the Centre and state the case was given to the CBI and an FIR was registered against Deshmukh.

Following the FIR, the Centre started asking for multiple documents from the state government including the Police Establishment Board meeting details. These meetings happen for the transfer of SP and above rank officers. The state initially refused to share the documents but the CBI moved court and the state was asked to submit those documents. Now, the state is using the same way to get certain documents from the Centre, using the legal remedies available before it.

10
No. of days in which MHA has to give the docs and pen drive