On Wednesday, the former OSD to then CM Ashok Gehlot, Lokesh Sharma, was questioned for the first time by the Delhi police in the phone tapping case. He told the police that Ashok Gehlot should be interrogated in the case.
Sharma told the Crime Branch in a 7-page written statement that he got the audio tapes directly from Ashok Gehlot on the 16th of July 2020 at 5:30-6 PM. He said it was Gehlot who asked him to circulate it in the media.
On April 24th this year, Sharma alleged that the phone tapping of political adversaries, including Sachin Pilot, was tapped by Ashok Gehlot when the state of Madhya Pradesh was in political turmoil. He had also alleged that Ashok Gehlot was tracking the movements of Sachin Pilot.
Earlier, Lokesh Sharma had said that he got the audio clips from social media and then circulated it in the media. On Wednesday, Sharma said that the last time he was questioned was in 2023 when Gehlot was still the CM. Every time he went for questioning, he was specifically instructed by Gehlot to tell the police that he got the audio tapes from social media and circulated them. However, he said that now that the entire blame is being put on him, he has to tell the truth.
In 2021, BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat filed a complaint, following which an FIR was lodged. In the FIR, Sharma has been accused of a criminal conspiracy and illegal phone tapping. In 2020, audio tapes were leaked where someone alleged to be Shekhawat was planning to topple the Gehlot government along with others. It was after that the phone tapping scandal came to the fore in which Lokesh Sharma was made the main accused.
