Nana Patole, head of the Maharashtra Congress, has filed a 500 crore defamation action in a civil court in Mumbai against IPS officer and former state intelligence chief Rashmi Shukla and others for alleged unlawful phone tapping.
In his new lawsuit, Mr Patole also sought a permanent injunction to prevent the exploitation of information obtained through suspected illegal phone tapping.
Ms Shukla and others were served with notices on Wednesday by civil judge V B Gore, who instructed them to respond by April 12.
Ms Shukla is now on central deputation and assigned to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Hyderabad as an assistant director-general. Aside from Ms Shukla, notices have been issued on Vaishali Chandgude, a police inspector (technical analysis department) at the Pune crime branch, the state home department’s additional chief secretary, and the police commissioners of Pune and Nagpur.
Mr Patole, an MLA from Bhandara district, claims that the former Maharashtra government (led by the BJP) plotted against him for political reasons.
He filed the complaint through the legal cell chairman, Ravi Jadhav, and secretary, Vaibhav Jagtap of the state Congress. Satish Uke, their lawyer, represented them in court.
Notably, Ms Shukla’s statement was recorded by Mumbai police in connection with the case of alleged illegal phone tapping.