JAIPUR: The controversy surrounding the alleged phone-tapping incident during the 2020 political crisis in Rajasthan saw a new development on Wednesday as Lokesh Sharma, former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Ashok Gehlot, accused the ex-Chief Minister of personally providing a pen drive containing three audio clips and a note.
In a startling revelation, Sharma has alleged that Gehlot used to tap the phones of rebel Congress leaders, including Sachin Pilot. He claimed that the audio clips of rebel Congress leaders and their phone calls provided to the news organisations were given to him by the former Rajasthan chief minister himself.
Sharma's claim marks a shift from his previous stand that he had gotten three clips from social media and forwarded those to news organisations. He also said he would provide evidence supporting his claim to the investigating agency, if sought.
"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 them to the media. I followed his instructions," Sharma claimed while showing a pen drive to the reporters.
"On July 16, 2020, Ashok Gehlot came to Hotel Fairmont because all the rebel leaders at that time were kept in that hotel. One hour after after the CM left, his PSO Ramniwas called me up and asked me to come to the CM House as the CM wanted to meet me... As soon as I reached, the CM handed over a pen drive and a piece of paper, which I circulated among the people through you. This paper allegedly contained a reference to a conversation between Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Late MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma, and Sanjay Jain; this pen drive contained their audio," Sharma claimed while showing a pen drive to the reporters.
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.
He claimed that after giving him the pen drive, Gehlot called him twice on WhatsApp to know why the news had still not been broadcast in the media.
Sharma claimed that after the news was broadcast, Gehlot spoke to him to know what he did with his phone—if he had destroyed it. To support his claim, Sharma also played a recording of a purported telephone conversation between him and Gehlot.
The Congress leader also claimed that the SOG raided his private office to ensure that the mobile phone used to circulate the audio clips was destroyed. He said he felt used by Gehlot and sidelined when the former chief minister's objective of "saving his chair" was fulfilled.
Meanwhile, Sharma also claimed that the purported audio clip of a phone conversation involving Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and certain Congress figures discussing the ousting of the state's Congress government in 2020 was provided to him by Gehlot.
He claimed that Shekahwat was added to the plot as Gehlot wanted to show that the BJP, in connivance with Pilot and other MLAs, aimed to topple Gehlot's government.
"They wanted to prove that the BJP was behind all this. Which was not the case. Then Deputy CM Sachin Pilot even said that no one was listening to them even when they wanted to tell their side of the story, so they all got together and reached the party's high command. But as soon as CM Ashok Gehlot got to know of this, he put everyone's phones on surveillance and was tracking them, including Sachin Pilot," Sharma said.
Sharma also accused Gehlot of hatching a conspiracy to tarnish the image of Shekhawat and the then-deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.
He alleged that the former chief minister put the phones of Pilot and other Congress leaders under surveillance, was involved in the Rajasthan Teacher Eligibility Test (REET) paper leak and kept the party high command in the dark.
Earlier in December, Lokesh Sharma claimed that the Congress government in the state was monitoring the movements of fellow party leaders and this was the reason Gehlot was able to save his party in the year 2020 in Rajasthan.
Speaking to ANI, he had said, "During the political crisis in Rajasthan, when Sachin Pilot had gone to Manesar with 18 MLAs, it is natural that the state government tracks the movement in such cases. So, the state government was keeping track of Sachin Pilot and the people he was meeting. Sachin Pilot was being monitored on where he was going and to whom he was talking on the phone so that corrective measures could be taken."
"It was because of the monitoring that we could bring some people back. He was also being chased and all his movements were tracked. I believe Sachin Pilot was aware of this and that he is being monitored," he said.
The phone-tapping controversy erupted in July 2020 during a political crisis when the Congress was running the Rajasthan government.
Clips of alleged telephone conversations between Shekhawat and Congress leaders surfaced amid a rebellion against Gehlot by his then-deputy Pilot and 18 party MLAs supporting him.
Sharma had circulated the clips purportedly containing conversations about "toppling" the Congress government.
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police had registered a case against Sharma after Union Minister Shekhawat filed a complaint alleging phone tapping.
Sharma had moved the Delhi High Court against the lodging of the case. His petition is still pending in the high court. During this period, the Crime Branch has interrogated Sharma about half a dozen times.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI and IANS)