Rajasthan phone-tapping case: Court orders collection of Jal Shakti Min's voice samples

In trouble for Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat, a Rajasthan court on Wednesday directed the state's Anti-Corruption Bureau to take steps to get his voice samples. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Jaipur's order came on an application by the ACB alleging that the investigation had been hampered by the resistance of Shekhawat and the accused middleman. Recently, Rajasthan Congress Chief Whip Mahesh Joshi trained guns on the Jal Shakti Minister for avoiding giving his voice sample.

Speaking to Congress workers on June 24, he questioned Shekhawat on why he was running away from the probe. He added, "He is a fugitive on moral grounds. He should appear before the ACB and give a voice sample". Incidentally, Joshi himself is under the scanner in a case registered by the Delhi Police Crime Branch in connection with the phone-tapping of CM Ashok Gehlot's opponents. 

The Rajasthan phone-tapping scandal

In July 2020, the Congress government in Rajasthan plunged into a crisis after the then Deputy CM Sachin Pilot with a group of supporting MLAs flew to Delhi. Even as Congress accused BJP of horsetrading, two audio recordings surfaced in which MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and alleged middleman Sanjay Jain are purportedly heard talking about a conspiracy to topple the government. Interestingly, it was Mahesh Joshi who submitted a complaint to Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group for registration of an FIR in the matter.

While Jain was arrested by the SOG, both Sharma and Shekhawat denied that the voice in the tape is theirs. In a bid to assert its dominance, the Gehlot camp managed to secure the suspension of MLAs Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh for being involved in this plot. After the internal bickering came to an end on August 10 as Congress agreed to address the concerns of his camp by forming a three-member committee, there was no visible progress in this case.

Moreover, the party revoked the suspension of Sharma and Singh thereafter. The controversy reignited when Sachin Pilot loyalist Ved Solanki alleged that some legislators have talked about their phones being tapped by various agencies. The Pilot camp has been up in arms against Gehlot over the delay in Cabinet expansion and political appointments.