New Delhi/Jaipur:

In a development that could land former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot in trouble, his ex-officer on special duty (OSD) Lokesh Sharma has held him responsible for phone tapping during the political crisis in the state in 2020.

He said Mr Gehlot should be interrogated in this regard.

Delhi Police questioned Mr Sharma on Wednesday in connection with the phone-tapping case lodged on a complaint by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

After the questioning, Mr Sharma said he submitted a seven-page written statement, describing the sequence of events on July 16, 2020, when he got a pen drive containing call recordings from the then chief minister for circulating to the media.

He said Mr Gehlot could tell how he got the call recordings and whether the call interceptions were done legally or not.

Mr Sharma’s claim this time has marked a shift from his previous stand that he had got three audio clips from social media and forwarded those to media houses.

Mr Sharma was called for questioning at Delhi Police’s Crime Branch office at Rohini. He reached there around 11 am, officials said.

Mr Sharma, in April this year, had publicly alleged that an audio clip of a purported telephonic conversation between Mr Shekhawat and some Congress leaders on “toppling” the then Congress government in Rajasthan in 2020 was given to him by the former chief minister himself.

Today, he mentioned this in the written statement.

“I have stated that the then chief minister had called me at the chief minister’s residence and gave me a pen drive. He directed me to circulate the content of the pen drive to newspapers.

“I went home, transferred the files from the pen drive to my laptop and from laptop to my phone, then circulated them to media houses as directed,” he told PTI.

He said the crime branch should now summon Ashok Gehlot for questioning to know the rest of the details.

“The next course of investigation should involve Ashok Gehlot,” he said.

Mr Sharma said that he was not involved in the call interceptions.

“It was done on the directions of the then chief minister. Now he can disclose further details, how the interception was done, and whether it was legal or illegal,” he said.

Mr Sharma claimed that phones of several Congress MLAs, from both camps of Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, were intercepted at the directions of the chief minister during the political crisis and he used to get a transcription of each call.

He said the then chief secretary, DGP, home secretary and principal secretary to the chief minister were all aware of the developments related to phone tapping.

The phone-tapping controversy erupted in July 2020 during a political crisis when the Congress was in power in Rajasthan.

The crisis was the result of a rebellion by the then deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress leaders against the leadership of Mr Gehlot.

During the crisis, clips of alleged telephonic conversations between Mr Shekhawat and Congress leaders surfaced, following which Mr Gehlot had alleged that Mr Shekhawat was behind the attempted toppling of his government.

Mr Sharma had circulated the clips purportedly containing conversations about the plan. 

In March 2021, Delhi Police registered an FIR against Mr Sharma on charges of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and unlawfully intercepting telephonic conversations on a complaint by Mr Shekhawat.

This is Mr Sharma’s sixth appearance before the Crime Branch for questioning. He was last quizzed by Crime Branch officials on October 10, 2023. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur:

Amid speculation that he too may be fielded by the BJP in the Rajasthan Assembly polls, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said he is not in the race for the chief minister’s post.

As elsewhere, the Bharatiya Janata Party has not projected any leader as its CM candidate in the Congress-run state. But former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and Shekhawat are being seen as possible contenders if the party wins.

In its first list of 41 candidates, the BJP has nominated seven MPs for the assembly elections on November 25.

There is a buzz that the Jodhpur MP may also be asked to fight the state elections, possibly from Jodhpur’s Sardarpura assembly constituency — held now by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Mr Shekhawat said there has been no discussion on this but any decision by the party’s top leadership will be followed.

In an interview to PTI, he denied that he aspired for the top post in the state. “I am not in any kind of race. I only do the work my leadership and the organisation gives me to do. I have no aspiration or desire other than this,” he said.

The Union Jal Shakti minister said the BJP legislature party will take the decision on the chief minister’s post, and that will then be validated by the party’s parliamentary board.

He predicted that the BJP will cross its record 2013 tally of 163 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan House this time.

Mr Shekhawat dismissed allegations by some local leaders that they were denied the party nomination this time because they are in the Raje camp. “Tickets have been announced for 41 seats — about 20 per cent seats. It is too early to draw conclusions from that,” he said.

He said Ms Raje is a senior leader and is respected by people at all levels in the party.

“There is no faction or group in the party and everyone is a ‘karyakarta’ (worker). The party decides who are the most suitable and gives them the responsibility of contesting the elections,” Mr Shekhawat said, reacting to protests by some disgruntled ticket seekers.

On the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society “scam”, he accused Mr Gehlot of misusing the state police and targeting him because of his son Vaibhav Gehlot’s defeat in Jodhpur in the last Lok Sabha elections.

On the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), Shekhawat said, “Gehlot was never serious about this project. He only wanted to do politics.” The project was envisaged by Raje government, and the Gehlot government is demanding a “national project” status for it. The Congress has indicated that it will be a major poll plank.

The minister said the BJP government will cover the ERCP under the river interlinking project.

He claimed the Gehlot government failed on every front.

The promises made to farmers were not fulfilled, paper leaks shattered the dreams of lakhs of youths, crime went up several-fold, atrocities against women and the Dalits increased and corruption touched new heights, the BJP leader alleged.

He said the BJP’s priority will be to make Rajasthan the country’s growth engine.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Jodhpur:

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Friday attacked Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, alleging that he was trying to derail the investigation into the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society scam case.

Neither the Rajasthan Police’ Special Operational Group (SOG) has been able to wrap up its probe into the matter in more than four years nor has it been referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he told reporters here.

Earlier, Ashok Gehlot has accused Gajendra Shekhawat of being involved in the scam, a charge that has been denied by the Union minister.

The chief minister is trying to derail the probe, Gajendra Shekhawat alleged and added that Ashok Gehlot does not want a fair investigation in the case.

The case pertains to thousands of investors who were duped of about Rs 900 crore by the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)