Sanjay Raut refuses to record statement in phone-tapping case to Mumbai Police

Mumbai Police's Colaba Police Station summoned Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut to appear before it on Friday to record his statement with regard to a phone-tapping case. However, Raut refused to record the statement.

Sanjay Raut will not appear before the police today, informed Mumbai Police.

Earlier on Thursday, the statement of NCP leader Eknath Khadse was recorded.

In March, a Mumbai Cyber Police recorded the statement of former Maharashtra Chief Minister and leader of Opposition in state Assembly Devendra Fadnavis in connection with the phone tapping case.

On February 26 this year, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil claimed that former Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla had tapped the phones of political leaders like Nana Patole, Bachchu Kadu, Sanjay Kakade and Ashish Deshmukh.

Mumbai's Colaba police station has registered a case against senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla in March this year. Rashmi Shukla has been questioned twice by Colaba Police Station.

Pune Police had registered an FIR against Rashmi Shukla in the Maharashtra phone tapping case. The case was registered under section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act.

In July last year, the Maharashtra government had constituted a three-member high-level committee headed by the then Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey to investigate the phone tapping cases for the period of five years from 2015 to 2019.

The high-level committee was tasked to find out whether the phones of various political leaders were tapped illegally for undesirable political or any other purpose.

The committee was asked to submit a detailed report of the probe and fix the responsibility of the person (if any) responsible for such cases.

The committee has now submitted the report to the government. According to the report, it is found that the phone tapping was done during the tenure of then Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla.

Accordingly, an FIR has been filed by Pune city police against her under section 26 of the Indian Telegraph act.

There were allegations of phone tapping levelled by several MLAs including Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole. The controversy over phone tapping had erupted in 2020 after audio clips purportedly having a telephonic conversation between Union minister Gajendra Singh and Congress leaders surfaced.

( With inputs from ANI )