Accusing former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot of illegal phone tapping, his former OSD Lokesh Sharma has alleged the purported phone conversation between Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and some Congress leaders on "toppling" the state's Congress government in 2020 was given to him by Gehlot himself.
The clips which went viral in 2020 July had MLAs supporting Sachin Pilot – Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh – conversing with BJP minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat about their plan to topple the ruling Congress government in Rajasthan. The clips also featured their interaction with another BJP leader named Sanjay Jain. Sharma has earlier claimed that he got the clips from social media which he forwarded to news organisations.
In 2021, an FIR against Sharma in March 2021 on charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and unlawfully intercepting telephonic conversations on a complaint by Shekhawat. Sharma approached Delhi High Court to quash the FIR. In June 2021, the high court granted an interim stay on coercive action against Sharma.
Sharma's revelations come just two days ahead of the second phase of the Lok Sabha election. "I did not get the audio clip from social media. The then chief minister Ashok Gehlot had given me all these audio clips through this pen drive and asked me to circulate it to the media. I followed his instructions," Sharma claimed while showing a pen drive to the reporters on Wednesday.
Gehlot's former aide claimed that he was merely following Gehlot's instructions and did not disclose the source of the clips when he was interrogated by the Crime Branch because Gehlot had offered him support.
However, he was neglected and faced mental torture due to the case and the questioning. "On July 16, 2020, the then chief minister came to Hotel Fairmont where the Congress MLAs of his camp were staying following the political crisis. He left the hotel around 4 pm. Later, I got a call from Gehlot's PSO Ramniwas that he was calling me to the chief minister's residence," Sharma said.
"When I reached, Gehlot gave me this pen drive having three audio clips and a paper with a transcript of the clips. He asked me to circulate those to the media," he added.
Sharma said he went home, transferred the audio clips to his laptop and then to his mobile phone before circulating those to the media. He also showed the laptop to the reporters.
Sharma has also alleged that Gehlot's close aides were protected by him in the question paper leak in 2022. The leaking of the teachers' training exam paper became a major issue in the state, which eventually became one of the reasons for the Congress's poor show in the elections.