CBI meddling in Rashmi Shukla case through its FIR against Deshmukh: Maharashtra govt

Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh. File Pic

The Maharashtra government on Friday told the Bombay High Court that it did not want to be seen as defending NCP leader Anil Deshmukh, but the CBI was trying to interfere in the inquiry against IPS officer Rashmi Shukla by expanding the scope of its probe against the former state home minister.

The state has moved the high court alleging that some portions of the FIR registered by the central agency against Deshmukh were unwarranted, and intended to "destabilize" the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government.

The state did not want to interfere in the CBI's probe against Deshmukh for alleged corruption, the Maharashtra government's lawyer and senior advocate Rafique Dada told a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and N J Jamdar.

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It merely wanted to get some portions from First Information Report (FIR) expunged. "I do not want to be seen as supporting Mr Deshmukh. He is not my minister anymore," advocate Dada said, when the CBI's lawyer proposed that the court hear the pleas filed by the state and Deshmukh together.

The CBI included the issues of reinstatement of (now dismissed) Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze and transfers and postings of some other officers in the past in its FIR which were not part of the original complaint, he said.

By including the issues of Vaze's reinstatement and Deshmukh's alleged interference in transfers, the CBI was trying to "peep into" issues in which the state was already conducting inquiries, Dada said.

The inclusion of these issues in the FIR was a pretext to interfere in the case of IPS officer Rashmi Shukla, he said.

Shukla, a former state intelligence commissioner, is facing inquiry for alleged unauthorized phone tapping and the leak of a confidential report.

"They (CBI) are trying to interfere in the investigations that we have already ordered," Dada said."Now, through a back-door method, through this FIR, the CBI is trying to rake these issues and resurrect these inquiries," Dada alleged.

On April 5, the HC, hearing a bunch of pleas including one filed by lawyer Jaishri Patil, directed the CBI to initiate a preliminary inquiry into allegations of corruption made against Deshmukh by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

As the Maharashtra government had withdrawn its 'general consent' for CBI probes in the state in October 2020, in the present case the central agency's investigation should be based only on the HC order and Patil's complaint, Dada argued.

"The state is not against the CBI investigation. What we are aggrieved by (is) only certain portions of the FIR that have gone beyond the HC order," he said.

Even Param Bir Singh's letter to the Chief Minister against Deshmukh, which was attached to Patil's complaint, did not speak of transfers and postings issue, Dada said.

Singh subsequently filed a public interest litigation where he alleged that Deshmukh interfered in police transfers and postings, and "CBI copied this portion on transfers from the PIL and made it a part of the FIR," Dada claimed.

The Maharashtra government moved the HC "since this is a matter of federal rights of the state", he argued.

Deshmukh too has filed a separate plea through senior advocate Amit Desai, challenging the entire FIR registered against him.

While the CBI's counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh suggested that the high court hear the Maharashtra government and Deshmukh together and the CBI thereafter, the state objected.

Deshmukh was no longer a minister and it didn't want to be seen as defending him, Dada said.

The HC will hear the CBI's arguments on June 21. The agency told the court that it was ready to abide by its earlier undertaking not to take any coercive action against Deshmukh till June 22.

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