Phone tapping: IPS officer files protest plea against CBI closure report

Senior IPS officer Bhaskar Rao has filed a protest petition requesting the court to reject the closure report (B report) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the telephone tapping case. The officer said that the closure report does not inspire confidence in the eyes of rule of law.

The CBI had filed a closure report in the case on June 30, 2021, stating that there was no direct evidence to prove with certainty as to who leaked three intercepted audio files and how a TV journalist Kushala Satyanarayana got access to these files.

These three files contained conversation between Bhaskar Rao and one Faraz Ahmed, whose calls were intercepted in connection with the investigation against a chit fund firm Injaj International Associated Group. The conversation was about the post of city police commissioner.

In his protest petition, Bhaskar Rao claimed that the CBI has not pressed charges for criminal breach of trust against IPS officer Alok Kumar despite having prima facie material. The interceptions were carried out from May 3, 2019, and all the calls landed at Technical Support Centre (TSC). Bhaskar Rao contended that TSC comes under the jurisdiction of the then Additional Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar. He also said the CBI hurriedly filed the B report even though a CFSL report in Hyderabad is awaited.

The CBI report stated that the conversations between police officer Mirza Ali Raza and Alok Kumar, pertaining to transfer of voice recordings, could not be retrieved since their mobile phones had been formatted post the incident. Bhaskar Rao stated that CBI’s closure report does not justify its own findings, investigative references and collated documentary evidence.

On August 2, 2018, the then Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Alok Kumar was transferred and Bhaskar Rao took charge as the new Commissioner. Within six days, on August 8, 2019, three intercepted calls were aired on a television channel. The CBI report established that the three audio files, which were found with the possession of the journalist, indeed originated from the TSC. The report, however, stated that it could not be established who provided three intercepted audio files to the journalist.