Jaipur: The alleged phone tapping during the political crisis of Congress government of Rajasthan in July 2020 may trouble the former CM Ashok Gehlot as his then OSD Lokesh Sharma has now demanded interrogation with former boss Gehlot in the case.
Lokesh Sharma who is facing the probe by Crime Branch of Delhi Police in the case filed against him by union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has denied any role and made serious allegations against the then DGP, Principal Secretary of the Home Department and Gehlot's Principal Secretary in his written statement.
Sharma said that in his written statement to Delhi Police Crime Branch he has stated that on the evening of July 16th 2020 Ashok Gehlot himself given a pen drive had asked him to send the clip to the media.
"I didn't even know what was in this pen drive? Now Gehlot should be questioned as to where the audio clip came from? Gehlot instructed me to tell the Crime Branch that audio clip was found from the social media. I only followed the instructions, which was my duty as his OSD; however, I have said that now this investigation should rest on Ashok Gehlot. The investigating agency should now ask Gehlot how this happened? Where did he get this audio clip from? Now only Gehlot can reveal everything. He will tell whose phones he got intercepted and how," said Lokesh.
Notably, the phone tapping issue came to the fore when the then Deputy CM of Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot had left for Manesar with around 20 Congress MLAs and Gehlot government faced a political crisis. An audio clip was circulated by Lokesh Sharma in the media that had allegedly voices of union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma and some others conspiring to topple the Gehlot government.
Months later in 2021, the state government had virtually accepted that phones were tapped during the political crisis, leading to an FIR by Shekhawat against Sharma and others. Now with the change of power in the state, Lokesh has openly come against his former boss Gehlot as he has no backing now.
Lokesh Sharma said- I was made accused of phone tapping. In the FIR lodged against me by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, he alleged that his phone was illegally intercepted, and the recording was made viral. Whereas I have always replied that I have nothing to do with phone tapping. I just found the audio clips in the pen drive and circulated them, which was my duty at that time. Now I have to put this truth in front of everyone because all the blame was being put on me.
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Lokesh who was called for interrogation after 11 months, alleged that during the political crisis in Rajasthan, the then Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had put under surveillance the phones of all the MLAs of his party who had gone to Manesar with Sachin Pilot. The then DGP, Home Secretary and Principal Secretary to the CM were involved in everything.