• Source:JND
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In a big expose, an officer on special duty (OSD) to former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot claimed the latter ordered the phone tapping of Sachin Pilot and several other Opposition leaders during the 2020 political debacle in Rajasthan. Lokesh Sharma, during a press conference in Jaipur, said the former state CM gave him audio clips of several Union Ministers, asking to share them with the media.  

Sharma was questioned in the illegal phone tapping case by the Delhi Crime Branch. Earlier, Sharma said he received the recordings through social media but now claims he received them from Gehlot with an instruction to share them with the media.

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“I was silent so far despite intense interrogation several times for 8-9 hours by the Crime Branch in Delhi in the phone tapping case. But the person who was responsible for the phone-tapping incident decided to leave me in the lurch. I was made to take the fallout,” India Today quoted him as saying.

“Earlier, I had said that I had received the recordings through social media, but that was not true. Ashok Gehlot had given me the audio clips of Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Congress leader Bhanwarlal Sharma and Sanjay Jain in a pen drive. I was asked to release it to the media,” Sharma said.

He also alleged that the phones of Sachin Pilot and his aides were also tapped when the former was at loggerheads with Gehlot over leadership issues in Rajasthan. He also said the BJP never made attempts to topple the Gehlot-led Rajasthan Government.

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“It is wrong to say that the BJP was behind the attempt to topple Ashok Gehlot's government. Sachin Pilot wanted to convey his feelings about the state leadership to the party high command. When he and people close to him were planning to go to meet High command, their phones were put on tapping,” he added.

Sharma also played a purported recording during the press conference, where Gehlot asked him about phone recordings.