Mumbai police’s cyber cell summons CBI director in phone tapping case

Subodh Kumar Jaiswal and Param Bir Singh

In a major development in the alleged illegal phone tapping case, the cyber cell of Mumbai Police has issued summons to serving Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal. The summons were sent to him on email and he has been asked to appear before the cyber cell on October 14.

Earlier, the CBI has issued summons to Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and DGP Sanjay Pandey, who were asked to appear before CBI on October 9, but both have sought more time from the agency citing personal reasons.

They were summoned in connection with the extortion case involving Anil Deshmukh. Now, it appears that in retaliation to the summons issued to senior officers of Maharashtra government by the Centre, the state is issuing summons to the CBI director. A senior officer of Maharashtra police confirmed the development.

The cyber cell this year has registered an FIR against unknown persons under the Official Secret Act for allegedly leaking confidential reports to BJP leader Devendra Fadanvis, who then submitted those recordings to the Union Home Secretary to probe the alleged transfer posting of Maharashtra IPS officers.

Fadanvis has claimed that the then State Intelligence Chief Rashmi Shukla had indulged in phone tapping, where she caught several people taking money in lieu of favourable postings. Later, they said that Shukla recorded calls without permission. When the alleged phone tapping took place, Jaiswal was the DGP of Maharashtra and Kunte was additional chief secretary of the home department.

Param Bir summoned

IPS officer Param Bir Singh has been summoned by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch Unit 11 in an extortion case, and is supposed to appear in court on October 12. The complaint was registered by 48-year-old Bimla Agarwal, who has alleged that dismissed cop Sachin Vaze, in connivance with Singh and others, extorted cash from her and two mobile phones. Based on Agarwal's complaint, the Goregaon police had registered an offence of extortion under the Indian Penal Code. Till now five FIRs have been registered, where Singh has been named as an accused person, and all have been transferred to the state CID for further probe. Singh is currently untraceable.