Phone t(r)ap lands Shiv Sena leaders in soup

The Pune police on Wednesday registered a case against MLC Neelam Gorhe and Milind Narvekar, personal secretary of Sena executive president, Uddhav Thackeray, on the basis of a tapped phone conversation in which Narvekar was found to be giving instructions on how to instigate violence during the Pune bandh on Tuesday.

The matter came to light when police inspector Manohar Shankar Joshi (55) from the special branch filed an FIR against Gorhe and Narvekar at the Bund Garden police station.

The two Sena leaders have been booked under sections 153 (promoting enmity between different groups and
doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 120 (b) (hatching criminal conspiracy) and 34 (act done by them with a common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The police also submitted the copy of the FIR before judicial magistrate (first class), RL Wankhede, of the Shivajinagar district court on Wednesday evening.

The police alleged that the conversation, which took place on December 27 at 11.56 pm, reveals Narvekar instructing Gorhe on instigating violence by vandalising vehicles and informing the media during the Pune bandh called on Tuesday by the BJP and Shiv Sena to protest the removal of Dadoji Konddev statue from Lal Mahal.    

“After the bandh was called, we immediately started tapping the landline and mobile numbers of many political leaders as the police have special powers, which have been mentioned in the Supreme Court guidelines on phone tapping in 1997. During the technical surveillance, a mobile call between Gorhe and Narvekar was recorded at 11.56 pm on December 27,” a senior police official said.

They also submitted a CD containing the mobile phone conversation between Gorhe and Narvekar and a four-page transcripts of the same.

The recorded conversation reveals that Narvekar had directed Gorhe to gather a mob of about 300 people at 6 am on Tuesday morning itself and create a ruckus.

According to the conversation Narvekar said, “Attack five to six buses in areas like Pune station, Swargate, Shivajinagar ST bus stand and stone them. Manage to burn a bus and simultaneously inform the television news channels. At 6 am burn down two trucks on Lonavla highway so that it will close down the highway and traffic flow will be disrupted. People would stop coming on the highway and in a way entry and exit points to the city will be closed.”

Giving further instructions, Narvekar said, “Everything should happen in the morning and should appear to have taken place suddenly. Burn two ST buses also. The bandh should create an impact in the city.”

According to the police, “The duo conspired to breach peace in the city and disturbed the smooth functioning of the city. They did it purposely just to create terror in the city. The FIR was drafted and a case was filed after consulting a tapping expert,” said the police officer.