New Delhi: More than three years after the Delhi Police booked him on charges of criminal conspiracy linked to the alleged phone-tapping of rebel Rajasthan Congress MLAs and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Lokesh Sharma, ex-officer on special duty to former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, was arrested Monday. He was, however, released on bail on the order of the Rohini court a few hours later.
The case goes back to 2020, when Gehlot was fighting a rebellion led by his party colleague Sachin Pilot and some 30 Rajasthan Congress MLAs. The camp led by Gehlot had released audio tapes alleging that MLAs from the Pilot camp were in touch with BJP leader Shekhawat through an intermediary and were hatching a conspiracy to topple the then Congress government in the state.
Shekhawat subsequently complained to the Delhi Police, which in 2021 registered an FIR in which Sharma was named. Shekhawat had accused Sharma of unlawfully intercepting his telephonic conversation in July 2020.
Monday’s development comes over a week after Sharma withdrew his petition from the Delhi High Court seeking to quash the FIR against him.
Earlier, in September, the BJP-led Rajasthan government withdrew its plea in the Supreme Court challenging the jurisdiction of the Delhi Police to probe the phone-tapping case.
Also Read: BJP ally says Vasundhra Raje asked Congress MLAs to support Gehlot, keep away from Pilot
A look at the case
In 2020, amid the rebellion by Sachin Pilot who was camped with lawmakers in a hotel in Haryana’s Manesar, threatening to topple the Gehlot government, the Gehlot camp released a set of audio tapes alleging that Shekhawat was conspiring in the matter.
In one clip, he purportedly talks to rebel Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma through an intermediary named Sanjay Jain. The Congress suspended two of its rebel MLAs after the revelations, and the party’s chief whip Mahesh Joshi complained to the special operations group of the Rajasthan Police, which lodged two FIRs in the matter.
The Congress had sought Shekhawat’s arrest for his role in “attempting to topple the Gehlot government”, something that the BJP leader denied while talking to the media.
In March 2021, on Shekhawat’s complaint, the Delhi Police crime branch registered a case under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as Section 26 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and Sections 72 and 72A of the Information Technology Act.
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Shekhawat alleged that while the additional chief secretary of Rajasthan had not authorised the tapping of phones, media houses which had aired the clips claimed that they had sourced the clips from Lokesh Sharma.
“It is of utmost relevance to mention here that while the additional chief secretary claims to have never authorised the telephonic interceptions, the media houses which published the intercepted conversations in reply to the notice dated 20.07.2020, served upon them in this regard… have disclosed the name of Shri Lokesh Sharma, as the person who provided them with the intercepted conversation,” Shekhawat says in his complaint which forms part of the FIR.
“Pertinently, the said Lokesh Sharma was then, and continues to be, the officer on special duty (OSD) to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the conversation which was intercepted and circulated related to Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who along with various other elected MLAs of Congress Party, at the relevant time, were dissatisfied with the political leadership in the state. It is amply clear that the aforementioned interceptions were effected and circulated with the intention to secure political ends,” he adds.
Change in stance
After the Delhi Police booked him on Shekhawat’s complaint, Sharma moved the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the FIR and the court ordered no coercive action against him on 3 June, 2021.
Simultaneously, the Gehlot government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the jurisdictional authority of the Delhi Police to probe the allegations of phone-tapping.
The crime branch in late 2023 summoned Sharma to appear before investigating officers, weeks before assembly elections in Rajasthan, which the Congress lost and the BJP won.
Both Sharma and the Rajasthan government have since changed their stance in the case. While the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led government withdrew the challenge to the Delhi Police’s investigation in the case, Sharma went public alleging that the audio clips had been given to him by Gehlot.
In a press conference held in April this year, Sharma admitted to having shared the audio clips with the media but said the clips had been handed over to him by Gehlot.
“So far I had been lying to all, including you (media), that I obtained the audio clips from social media. But the fact is that they were provided to me by Gehlot,” he said, while playing a clip claiming that it was Gehlot taking a status update on the matter.
“My only wrongdoing was carrying out my duties as a special officer of former CM Gehlot, guided by his principles and wisdom. I was unaware of the broader conspiracy surrounding the distribution of these clips until legal action was taken,” he alleged.
The Rajasthan government in July this year filed a plea in the apex court asking it to allow it to withdraw the original suit filed under Article 131 of the Constitution, which is invoked to settle a legal dispute between the Centre and state. The Supreme Court this September allowed withdrawal of the plea questioning the Delhi Police’s jurisdiction to investigate the alleged phone-tapping incident.
The same month, Sharma was summoned again before investigating officers, where he reiterated his earlier allegations of receiving the audio tapes from Gehlot and releasing them at his behest.
In a seven-page statement to the crime branch, Sharma explained the sequence of events in July 2020, when he allegedly got a pen drive containing call recordings from the then Rajasthan CM.
On 27 September this year, the Rajasthan government submitted that it had already withdrawn its plea from the Supreme Court challenging the authority of the Delhi Police.
“Counsel for the State of Rajasthan points out that as opposed to an earlier position which had been taken with respect to the FIR in question, which was registered in Delhi, it is stated on instructions that they have no objection to the investigation being continued by the Delhi Police in this jurisdiction, in view of subsequent developments,” the Delhi High Court noted in its order.
Following the Rajasthan government’s change of stance, Sharma too withdrew his plea this month from the Delhi High Court, which lifted the stay on his arrest.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Rajasthan to withdraw Gehlot govt’s suit in SC contesting phone-tap case probe, says ‘no merit in it’