Ashok Gehlot ordered phone tapping of Sachin Pilot, Cong rebel leaders during 2020 infighting: ex-aide

Ashok Gehlot's former aide Lokesh Sharma has claimed that during the 2020 Congress infighting in Rajasthan, the phones of party leaders, including Sachin Pilot, were tapped and their movements were tacked at the orders of the former Rajasthan chief minister.

Sharma's claim marks a shift from his previous stand that he had got three clips from social media and forwarded those to news organisations.

The clip had the alleged telephone conversation between Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and some Congress leaders on "toppling" the state's Congress government in 2020.

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 those to the media. I followed his instructions," Sharma claimed while showing a pen drive to the reporters.

"Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was made to look as the main accused in the whole issue and it was alleged that BJP along with Sachin Pilot and other MLAs are trying to topple the 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 on Wednesday 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.

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

Sharma approached Delhi High Court to quash the FIR. In June 2021, the high court granted an interim stay on coercive action against Sharma.

He further claimed that he followed Gehlot's instructions and did not disclose the source of the clips despite questioning by the Crime Branch.

Sharma alleged he was assured full cooperation by Gehlot when a case was registered against him. However, he was neglected and faced mental torture due to the case and the questioning.

(With PTI inputs)

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