The Gujarat police on Saturday transferred the e-mail hacking complaint filed by Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta against suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt to the city crime branch.
A case was registered against Bhatt at Vastrapur police station here on August 5 after Mehta lodged the complaint.
"The case has been transferred to the city crime branch," a senior crime branch official said.
Bhatt, in his affidavit to the Supreme Court, had stated that someone within the Special Investigation Team (SIT) was leaking confidential details related to its investigations to Mehta.
Bhatt claimed he had seen unusual e-mails from the SIT, which is probing the riots cases, in Mehta's personal e-mail account.
Mehta, in his complaint, alleged Bhatt had hacked into his e-mail account and passed on information to others.
"These communications contain my personal, official, and legal correspondences which were not only seen by Bhatt but also shared with others for ulterior motive, which, apart from being a criminal offence, violates my right of privacy," Mehta's complaint says.
The crime branch's cyber cell will conduct the probe, officials said.
Incidentally, Sanjiv Bhatt and Tushar Mehta had long been family friends.
Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of misusing the state machinery against Muslims during 2002 post-Godhra riots.
He also alleged Tushar Mehta used to receive confidential information about the investigation conduced by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT which was probing allegations against Modi and others in post-Godhra riot cases.
According to Bhatt, September 2009 onwards, he was required to access the e-mail account of Mehta many times and came across several e-mail exchanges indicative of a nexus between top functionaries of the state and others in "a cover-up operation aimed at shielding powerful persons from prosecution".