Gehlot ordered phone tapping of Pilot, rebels during 2020 Rajasthan Congress crisis, claims his former aide

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Lokesh Sharma, previously serving as an officer on special duty (OSD) to former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, claimed that during the 2020 party crisis in the state, Gehlot ordered the tracking of phones and movements of party rebels, including Sachin Pilot.

Sharma alleged that the former Rajasthan Chief Minister provided recordings of phone calls and instructed him to share them with the media.

Speaking at a press conference in Jaipur, the former OSD to Gehlot stated that despite enduring intense interrogations lasting 8-9 hours by the Crime Branch in Delhi regarding the phone tapping case, he had remained silent until now.

“The person who was responsible for the phone-tapping incident decided to leave me in the lurch. I was made to take the fallout,” Sharma added.

He also asserted that Gehlot handed him phone recordings of Union Minister and BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, late Congress leader Bhanwarlal Sharma, and a middleman Sanjay Jain on a pen drive, instructing him to release it to the media, as per India Today report.

During the press briefing, Sharma revealed that the phones of Pilot and his associates were tapped when it became known that they were planning to approach the Congress high command regarding issues with Gehlot’s leadership in the state.

“It is wrong to say that the BJP was behind the attempt to topple Ashok Gehlot’s government. Sachin Pilot wanted to convey his feelings about the state leadership to the party high command. When he and people close to him were planning to go to meet High command, their phones were put on tapping,” he claimed.

In 2020, the release of three audio clips allegedly involving a person identified as Gajendra Singh (suspected to be Shekhawat), Bhanwarlal Sharma, Sanjay Jain, and another Congress leader Vishvendra Singh caused a political crisis in Rajasthan. These recordings purportedly captured discussions about orchestrating the downfall of the Gehlot government. Following the leak, then Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot led a rebellion of 19 Congress MLAs.

Sharma has also been named as an accused in an FIR filed in Delhi in March 2021, following a complaint by BJP leader Shekhawat concerning these audio recordings. He has been summoned and interrogated several times by the Delhi Police regarding this matter.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow