Ashok Gehlot behind phone tap of Sachin Pilot in 2020 Congress crisis, alleges former CM's ex-aide

Congress leader Ashok Gehlot’s former Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Lokesh Sharma, has alleged that during the 2020 party crisis in the state, the phones of party rebels, including , and their movements were tracked at the behest of the former Chief Minister, according to a report in Indian Express.

“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.

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

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

This is not the first time Sharma has made these allegations against Gehlot. In December last year, he said that the former CM had carried out t during the 2020 rebellion. 

The fresh revelations come a day before 13 Rajasthan seats go to polls in the second phase on April 26. Sharma was also an accused in an FIR lodged in connection with these audio clips in Delhi in March 2021. Sharma and others have been charged with criminal conspiracy and “unlawfully intercepting" telephonic conversations.

Sharma alleged that the former CM had also inquired if the phone used to share the recordings was destroyed and also asked him to give away his laptop. He said although he destroyed the phone, he kept the laptop. Sharma said employed him