Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot should be questioned in connection with a phone tapping case being investigated by the Delhi Police, the Congress leader’s former Officer on Special Duty Lokesh Sharma said on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported.
In April, Sharma alleged that an audio clip of a purported telephonic conversation between Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and some Congress leaders in July 2020, allegedly conspiring to topple the Congress government in the state, was given to him by Gehlot.
Sharma claimed that Gehlot asked him to circulate the clips in the media.
Sharma was questioned by the Delhi Police on Wednesday for the first time after he made the allegations. He later told reporters that he had given a statement to the police detailing how he received the audio clips.
“I have stated, with evidence, that around 6.30 pm–7 pm on July 16, 2020, the then CM Ashok Gehlot called me and gave me a pen drive, which had audio clips, and told me to circulate it in the media,” Sharma claimed.
Gehlot must be questioned about “how he got these audio clips recorded”, Sharma said. “Was it legal or illegal, was the interception [of phone calls] done while following all the rules and regulations or what was the intention behind it?”
Sharma had earlier claimed that he received the clips from social media. He also alleged that the phones of Congress leaders, including Sachin Pilot, and their movements were tracked at Gehlot’s behest.
In July 2020, the Congress’ Rajasthan unit had been rattled by a pitched battle between Gehlot and Pilot. A group of 19 party MLAs led by Pilot demanded that he be made the chief minister. Pilot was then removed as the deputy chief minister and from the post of the state Congress chief.
On Wednesday, Sharma said that when he was last questioned by the police in October 2023, he was still the officer on special duty to Gehlot, who was the chief minister at the time. “Whenever I left for questioning by Delhi Police, I was instructed to tell them that I received these audio clips via social media and that’s what I used to do,” he said.
The Congress lost the Assembly election in Rajasthan in December.
“But now the entire blame is being put on me, that I got the phones tapped,” Sharma said. “I clearly said I have nothing to do with the phone tapping case and that I had merely shared the contents of the pen drive with the media. Since I was his OSD and handled his media…it was my responsibility to follow the CM’s orders.”
Sharma was named in a first information report registered in March 2021 based on a complaint by Shekhawat. He has been accused of criminal conspiracy and unlawfully intercepting telephone conversations.
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