Ashok Gehlot behind phone tap of Sachin Pilot and rebels in 2020, claims former CM’s ex-aide

Responding to Sharma’s accusations, Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said, “He is not a member of the organisation and he is in touch with BJP leaders. Hence, he’s acting on their instructions.”

Incidentally, Sharma is also an accused in an FIR, lodged in connection with these audio clips, in Delhi in March 2021 on the complaint of Union Minister and Rajasthan BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. In the FIR, Sharma and others have been accused of criminal conspiracy and “unlawfully intercepting telegraphic signals (telephonic conversation)” and he has been summoned and questioned several times by Delhi Police in this case.

In 2020, the leak of three audio clips allegedly involving one Gajendra Singh – alleged to be Shekhawat – a middleman Sanjay Jain, and then Congress MLAs Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh had led to a political crisis in Rajasthan. In the tapes, they were allegedly heard devising a plan to topple the Gehlot government, and Deputy CM Pilot had then led a rebellion of 19 Congress MLAs.

Barely two days ahead of the final phase of voting for the remaining 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Sharma told reporters that Gehlot had handed him a pen drive with three audio recording clips and a paper that summarised the content of the recordings, and asked him to share it with the media.

“On July 16, 2020, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot left Hotel Fairmont (where MLAs were sequestered due to the political crisis) around 3.30-4.00 pm. An hour after he left, his PSO Ramniwas called me saying that the CM has summoned me,” Sharma said.

Waving a pen drive and a paper, Sharma said that when he reached the CM residence, Gehlot handed him “this pen drive and this typed paper”.

“The pen drive had the three audio clips which I conveyed to the public through all of you,” he said, claiming that he did not even know the content of the audio files and was merely following the CM’s instructions.

“Since one can’t directly circulate through a pen drive, I brought it home and transferred it to a laptop,” he said, showing a laptop he used. “From the laptop, I took the audio clips in my phone and circulated it among journalists through my phone.”

Playing audio recordings purportedly of Gehlot, he said the CM had also inquired if the phone used to share the recordings was destroyed and also asked him to give away his laptop. Sharma told reporters that although he destroyed the phone, he kept the laptop.

So far, Sharma had maintained that he received the audio files on social media. “It was my responsibility to maintain the trust of the person who had handed over something to me, and I did that. Till date I kept saying that I got these audio clips from social media…,” he said.

“Toh ye audio clips mujhe social media ke madhyam se nahi mili, Mukhyamantri Ashok Gehlot ne is pen drive ke zariye mujhe ye saari audio clips deen aur ye kaha ke media ko aap circulate kar dijye aur maine woh kaam kiya (So I did not get these audio clips from social media, CM Ashok Gehlot gave me these audio clips in a pen drive and told me to circulate in media and that’s what I did),” he said.

Sharma said that once the three audio clips became public, allegations were levelled that BJP leaders, in connivance with Pilot and other MLAs, wanted to topple the Gehlot government. “The intent behind all this was to prove that the BJP was behind it. But this was not the reality. All of us heard our young leader, the then deputy CM Sachin Pilot, say that they were not being heard and wanted to keep our voice across…,” he said.

“As soon as CM Gehlot got to know (about a rebellion) this entire conspiracy was hatched. The phones of all the people who went with him (Pilot) were on surveillance. Everyone was being tracked, including Sachin Pilot,” he said, adding that there was real-time information about their movements.

Asked about the timing of his allegations, Sharma said he was troubled by repeated court appearances and that “the next hearing is on May 7 or 8”. He said he cannot bear the mental agony anymore and accused Gehlot of ditching him.

Sharma said Gehlot employed him “for his political gains and to save his chair” and once it was accomplished – his government was saved and he completed his term – he stopped talking about it, “despite earlier assurances that we would approach the Supreme Court if needed”.

He also alleged that to get back at Shekhawat and to pressure him, there were discussions at the CM’s residence almost “everyday” to target the Union Minister.

Accusing Gehlot of giving a free hand to his MLAs and ministers, “who broke all records of corruption”, Sharma praised the Bhajan Lal Sharma government over its action in the paper leaks case.