New Delhi: Senior IPS officer Rashmi Shukla was appointed as Maharashtra's first woman Director General of Police (DGP) on Thursday. The state home department issued the order of her appointment.
Shukla, an Indian Police Service officer of the 1988 batch, was posted as director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on deputation, reported news agency PTI.
Before her, Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar was holding additional charge as DGP Maharashtra after Rajnish Seth retired from the post on December 31, 2023.
She was appointed as the top cop months after the Bombay High Court quashed two FIRs registered against her in phone-tapping cases, reported PTI.
What Was The Phone-Tapping Case?
As per the report, Shukla faced controversy during the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government's tenure when she was implicated as an accused in phone tapping cases.
However, in September 2023, the Bombay High Court quashed two FIRs registered against Shukla in this connection.
The two FIRs were lodged in Pune and Colaba in south Mumbai, accusing her of illegally tapping the phones of certain opposition leaders during Devendra Fadnavis' tenure as the chief minister.
Shukla was serving as the head of the state intelligence department during that period, reported PTI.
The Pune case was registered for allegedly recording phone calls of state Congress chief Nana Patole, while the Mumbai case was for allegedly recording phone calls of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse, who was earlier with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In the Pune FIR, the police had submitted a C-Summary report (case is neither false nor true) and had sought to close the case, while in the Mumbai case, the government had refused to grant sanction to prosecute Shukla, the report said.
Fadnavis is currently the deputy chief minister and home minister of Maharashtra.