Karnataka High Court rejects Roopa Moudgil’s plea for IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri’s call records
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a petition filed by senior IPS officer Roopa Moudgil seeking the Call Data Records (CDR) of IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri, terming the plea unnecessary and irrelevant to the defamation case pending against her.
Roopa had earlier approached the magistrate court requesting directions to telecom companies to produce Sindhuri’s call records. The request was linked to a defamation suit filed by Rohini Sindhuri after Roopa allegedly posted objectionable material against her on Facebook. The magistrate court had rejected the plea, following which Roopa moved the High Court.
A single-judge bench of Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum upheld the lower court’s decision, observing that the IPS officer’s petition was flawed and appeared to be an attempt to delay the trial. The bench noted that the case pertained to allegations of defamation and not to issues that required CDR examination.
The court said Roopa had accused Sindhuri of tarnishing her reputation and even linked her to the death of a police officer in her posts, which were the basis of the defamation complaint. While Roopa’s counsel had sought Sindhuri’s two-year CDR to establish her alleged contact with Munish Moudgil, Roopa’s husband, the bench pointed out that Roopa had the liberty to produce Munish’s records and examine him as a defense witness.
Senior advocate D.R. Ravishankar, representing Roopa, argued that Sindhuri had admitted to speaking with Munish but had also claimed she did not know his phone number. He contended that only Sindhuri’s call records could reveal the truth and provide details about the calls and their locations. He further said the CDR was crucial for Roopa to defend herself, but the magistrate court dismissed her plea without explaining why it was irrelevant.
Countering this, Sindhuri’s counsel C.V. Nagesh maintained that the case stemmed from a private complaint over defamatory posts, and repeated petitions from Roopa were aimed at delaying proceedings. He added that the High Court conciliation bench had previously fined Roopa Rs 10,000 for similar tactics and even gave her an option to test her claims in court.
Nagesh stressed that the law does not permit seeking CDRs of individuals as it amounts to a violation of privacy rights. He argued that if Roopa wanted to establish communication between her husband and Sindhuri, she could rely on Munish’s call records and subject him to cross-examination instead of demanding Sindhuri’s records.
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Assembly polls: Rs 650 crore worth illicit cash, liquor seized; nearly half from West Bengal
New Delhi (PTI): Enforcement authorities across the four poll-going states and Puducherry have seized over Rs 650 crore worth of illicit cash, drugs and liquor meant to allure voters, the Election Commission said on Sunday.
According to data shared by the poll authority, Rs 319 crore of illicit cash, drugs, liquor and valuable metals have been seized from West Bengal, followed by Rs 170 crore in Tamil Nadu.
Over 5,173 flying squads have been deployed to ensure that the complaints are attended to within 100 minutes.
Besides this, over 5,200 static surveillance teams (SSTs) have also been deployed for setting up surprise nakas (broadly, barricades) at different locations, the poll authority said.
While Kerala, Assam and Puducherry go to the polls on April 9, voting in West Bengal will be in two phases on April 23 and 29. Tamil Nadu will have assembly polls in a single phase on April 23.
Assembly bypolls will also be held in eight seats across six states on April 9 and 23.
The data, EC said, has been collated from the Electronic Seizure Management System.
While assembly elections and by-elections were announced on March 15, the Electronic Seizure Management System (ESMS) was activated on February 26.
