Ashok Gehlot asked me to leak audio recordings of cabinet ministers to media, says his former aide

Former officer on special duty (OSD) to Ashok Gehlot, Lokesh Sharma, has made several allegations against the former Rajasthan Chief Minister. Sharma, who was interrogated in the illegal phone tapping case, claimed Gehlot provided him with audio recordings of cabinet ministers for media release. 

Sharma alleged he was abandoned by Gehlot when the phone-tapping scandal emerged. 

"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,” said Sharma in a press conference in Jaipur.

Sharma also said that unlike what he had claimed earlier, he did not get the recordings from social media but was provided by Gehlot. “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," Lokesh Sharma alleged. 

He further claimed that phones of Sachin Pilot and his allies were tapped under Gehlot's leadership when they planned to address their concerns to the Congress high command. 

Sharma also played an alleged recording of a conversation with Gehlot discussing phone recordings. He claimed that Gehlot was behind attempts to prevent Sachin Pilot from becoming the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and accused him of betraying the Congress high command. 

“"He (Gehlot) felt that I had not destroyed the phone. On November 26, 2021, an SOG raid was conducted on my office. This is the truth of our former Chief Minister,” said Sharma.

Sharma alleged Gehlot was hesitant to take action in a paper leak case and claimed to have evidence of corruption during Gehlot's regime, including a mining scam, irregularities in distribution of mobile phones to women, and corruption in equipment purchase during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I am ready to share the evidence I have with the current government. People in the state should know the two faces of the (former) government, one in the open and one behind the scenes," Sharma said