No evidence against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla, her lawyer tells Bombay High Court

Bombay High Court. File Pic

There is not "a shred of evidence" against senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in a data leak case and she had been victimised for doing her duty, her lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani told the Bombay High Court.

Shukla, a former head of the Maharashtra state intelligence department (SID), has challenged an FIR registered by Mumbai police against unidentified persons for alleged illegal phone tapping and leak of sensitive documents related to police transfers. The state government was acting in a "malafide" (malicious) way, senior advocate Jethmalani told a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar.

"There is not a shred of evidence against her. She has not committed any crime as alleged in the FIR. For arguments' sake, even if she has, it has been done for justice and in public interest," the lawyer said. Senior advocate Darius Khambata, the state's lawyer, termed Jethmalani's charges as "reckless and frivolous". The petition seeks to quash an FIR registered for leaking data without authorization and is not concerned with the phone tapping issue or the CBI probe into alleged corruption in transfer of police officers in Maharashtra, he said.

Also Read: Have been made a scapegoat, targeted by Maharashtra govt: IPS officer Rashmi Shukla tells Bombay High Court

The court adjourned the hearing to September 4, asking the state government to file its reply to Shukla's petition. Shukla, currently serving as additional director general of the Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) south zone, was the head of the SID when the alleged tapping of phones took place. The FIR was registered after BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis alleged corruption in police transfers citing a purported SID report on intercepted phone conversations.

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