IPS Officer Rashmi Shukla won't be arrested if she co-operates with investigation: Mumbai Police to Bombay High Court

The Mumbai Police told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Rashmi Shukla will not be arrested for the time being if she co-operates with the interrogation. .The statement was made in a hearing before the High Court on a plea by Shukla seeking quashing of the FIR registered by the Mumbai Police against unknown persons for leaking information pertaining to police postings in the State..The State said that no arrest will be made till the next date of hearing of the case provided she co-operates with the police. .Shukla is currently posted at Hyderabad as Additional Director General of South Zone, Central Reserve Police Force. .Mumbai police had summoned Shukla on April 26, 2021 but she had sent a response expressing her inability to remain present due to the COVID situation. Thereafter, the police sent her fresh summons on April 28, 2021 for recording of her statement..Shukla thereafter approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of the FIR. The plea filed through Advocate Sameer Nangre has sought urgent reliefs of "no-coercive action" by the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Police on the apprehension of Shukla's arrest in connection with the FIR..A Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale observed on Thursday that due to the ongoing pandemic coupled with the fact that Shukla was officially posted in Hyderabad, there may be difficulty for her to appear before the Mumbai Police. .Senior Advocate Darius Khambata, appearing for the State, suggested that if she cannot travel to Mumbai, a team of police officers from Mumbai could travel to her work location and record her statement. .Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing Shukla, however requested that a statement of 'no-arrest' may be made and that Shukla is willing to co-operate with the investigation. .There was an initial opposition from the State considering the offences registered against Shukla were all punishable with imprisonment of upto 3 years which meant the procedure was to first summon the accused for interrogation. .While Khambata stated that if "there could be no arrest in law, there could be no arrest", the Court insisted that "a gracious act" for the State would be to make a statement that Shukla would not be arrested upon co-operation. The Court then recorded Khambata's statement given by him after obtaining instructions from the Prosecutor..Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh appearing for CBI submitted that the documents pertaining to corruption were being investigated by CBI as a part of the larger investigation being conducted in the FIR registered against former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on corruption charges. The Court clarified that the order recorded and the observations made in the order were only limited to the present case. .Shukla was represented by Jethmalani with Advocates Ravi Sharma, Chirag Shah, Gunjan Mangla, Sameer Nangre and Siya Chaudhary. State was represented by Khambata briefed by Chief Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare. .The Court was also approached by former Mumbai Police Commissioner, Param Bir Singh with a plea seeking transfer of investigation of cases registered against him and thirty-two others from Thane police to CBIThe FIR was based on a complaint by Inspector Bhimrao Ghadge at Akola, from where it was transferred to the Thane Police..The court granted him liberty to move the vacation bench in case of extreme urgency.[Read order here]