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Check their authenticity first: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat after police notice over audio clips
Rajasthan police’s special operations group (SOG) has served a notice to Union minister for Jal Shakti for his alleged bid to destabilise the state government and directed him to record his statement.
Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat reiterated on Monday he is ready to face an investigation but the police should first check the authenticity of the audio clips, which the Congress alleges has his voice during a conversation discussing a plot to topple the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government.
Rajasthan police’s special operations group (SOG) has served a notice to Union minister for Jal Shakti for his alleged bid to destabilise the state government and directed him to record his statement.
Shekhawat confirmed he has received the notice through his personal secretary.
“In the notice, they have asked me to record my statement and voice sample,” he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s parliamentarian from Jodhpur said his “doors are always open for any kind of inquiry” but the police must find out the details.
“I first want them to check the authenticity of the audio clips. With whose permission was it recorded? Who recorded it? First, they should come out with its authenticity,” Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The SOG had registered two separate first information reports (FIRs) on Friday after Congress’ chief whip in the Rajasthan assembly Mahesh Joshi lodged a complaint about three audiotapes that had surfaced the previous evening and quickly went viral on social media.
The leaked audiotapes purportedly have conversations between a rebel Congress legislator and others, including a Gajendra Singh, who could be heard discussing strategies to bring down the Gehlot-led government.
The FIRs had identified the rebel Congress legislator from Sardarshahar, Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who has since been suspended by the party, and Sanjay Jain, a networker and known for his proximity to politicians cutting across party lines and also the bureaucracy.
Jain was arrested by the SOG on Friday night and is being interrogated.
The persons named in the FIR have been booked under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, Rathore said.
Shekhawat and Sharma had issued separate statements and denied the charges levelled against them and termed the audiotapes as “fake” and blamed chief minister Gehlot for the trump-up charges.
“The voice on the audiotapes is not mine. I am ready to face any investigation,” Shekhawat had said last week.
The Congress, on its part, has demanded Shekhawat’s resignation, reiterating its allegation that he is involved in a plot to topple the state government.
Shekhawat has no moral authority to continue in office and he should resign to ensure that the probe is not influenced, Congress leader Ajay Maken said on Sunday.
Ashok Gehlot is locked in a power tussle with former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who has the backing of 18 Congress legislators and three Independents.
These MLAs are believed to be camping in a resort in Gurugram, while those in the Gehlot camp have been lodged in a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur.
