Overview
- Rashmi Shukla submitted her opinion to the state home department on January 3, shortly before retiring as Maharashtra’s police chief.
- Her report, drawing on an SIT inquiry, names Sanjay Pandey along with DCP Laxmikant Patil and ACP Sardar Patil for allegedly trying to implicate Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde during the MVA period.
- The document alleges pressure on accused and witnesses during a reinvestigation of the 2016 ULC-extortion matter, including efforts to secure statements naming the two leaders.
- Senior police figures questioned the legal basis for such an FIR, while BJP leaders demanded action and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders attacked the report as politically driven.
- Separately, businessman Sanjay Punamiya’s complaint led to a 2024 extortion case against Pandey and others, and the former DGP earlier spent five months in custody in the NSE phone-tapping case.