ACB gives clean chit to main accused in 2020 Rajasthan political conspiracy

Vivek Bajwa, the counsel for one of the accused persons, said: “We had challenged the FIR in the High Court and received a stay on arrest in 2020. Now, after investigation, the police have said no offence is made out and filed a negative final report (FR) in the trial court. That FR was taken on record in the High Court and our petition (seeking quashing of the FIR) was disposed of.”

In the audio tapes, leaked in 2020, one Gajendra Singh — alleged to be Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat — middleman Sanjay Jain, as well as then Congress MLAs Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh were allegedly heard devising a plan to topple the Gehlot government. Then deputy CM Sachin Pilot had at the time led a failed rebellion of 19 Congress MLAs.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) had in 2020 claimed that Ashok Singh’s number was on surveillance “to check smuggling of illegal weapons” while Bharat Malani’s was on surveillance for “smuggling of explosive substances.”

In March 2021, then parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal had defended the phone tapping saying that the Centre and state governments are authorised to preserve public order and prevent a crime from taking place. He had said that it was in that context that police officials were granted authorisation to intercept the phones of Singh and Malani.

In its 2020 FIR — before the case was transferred to the ACB — the SOG had noted: “From the conversation on these numbers, it appears that attempts are being made to topple the government, and preparations were completed before the Rajya Sabha elections. In the conversation, it is said that the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister are having a fight; in such a situation, the ruling party MLAs and independent MLAs can be broken away to topple the government and a new CM will be put in place.”

The SOG had also said it had come to know that a BJP leader was trying to lure Ramila Khadiya, the then Independent MLA from Kushalgarh in Banswara, with money. The FIR had said the conversations “make it clear that efforts are being made to purchase Congress and independent MLAs” through a feeling of hatred towards a “democratically elected government.”

Now, in its final report, the ACB has said that no evidence has been found of Singh and Malani “collecting bribe money to bribe any public servant/MLA or any other person, nor has any bribe money been recovered from the possession of the said accused”.

It also said it found “no concrete evidence” of demand of bribe or transaction of bribe by Singh and Malani “for destabilising the democratically elected government or for influencing the MLAs to vote in favour of their party in the Rajya Sabha election to be held on 19th June 2020.”

It said that an analysis of Malani’s bank account for two months — June and July 2020 — did not reveal any large transaction. As for Khadiya, the ACB has said the investigation did not find any evidence of the accused giving money or enticing her; moreover, if they had enticed her, “then the MLA would have definitely made a written and oral complaint to the government agencies in this regard,” but that no such complaint was given by her.

In Jodhpur, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said: “What I had said earlier turned out to be true. The truth can never be hidden. Bharat Malani ji and Ashok Singh ji have been found to be specklessly clean, just like I was.”

He said that Singh and Malani were branded traitors but then the case was soon turned into one of corruption under ACB, and now the clean chit has exposed the then Congress government and its leadership.

He said Gehlot indulged in such actions “to save his government and to suppress and crush internal rebellion, and to distract people from the failures of his government. Police and other investigation agencies were misused and false action was taken against people. The people have already given their answer to Congress’s misdeeds in the 2023 elections.”

Attacking Shekhawat, Gehlot said: “If he (Shekhawat) is so honest, why has he not provided a voice sample for the investigation of the audio related to horse-trading even to this day? Why does he repeatedly oppose giving a voice sample in court in the Sanjay Jain case? If he is honest, he should provide a voice sample once and prove his integrity.”

“After the change in government, pressure is being exerted on investigative agencies, first in the Sanjeevani case and now in other cases, to manipulate facts and file FRs, leaving the court with no other option,” Gehlot said.

He said that having failed to topple the Rajasthan government, Shekhawat and others “were left nursing their wounds” and that Shekhawat “can never be absolved of the sin of attempting to topple a democratically elected government.”