BJP counters Congress over Rajasthan audio tapes claim, demands CBI probe into phone tapping row

Jaipur: Launching a counter-attack on Congress over audiotapes stir, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday (July 18) asked if the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan resorted to unconstitutional methods to tap the phones of politicians. 

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, who addressed an online media briefing today, demanded a CBI investigation into the allegations made by Congress in Rajasthan.

He posed a few questions before the Congress during the briefing:

Q1. Was phone taping done? The Congress govt in Rajasthan must answer.

Q2. Is it not a sensitive and legal issue, if phone tapping has been done?

Q3. Assuming that phones were tapped by the Rajasthan government, was the standard operating procedure followed by Congress?

Q4. Did the Congress govt in Rajasthan use unconstitutional ways to save themselves when they found themselves cornered? The Chief Minister should answer if the state machinery was misused in the phone tapping incident.

Q5. Is the government in Rajasthan snooping on all political leaders in the state?

Q6. Is there not a state of emergency in Rajasthan? 

Q7. Is phone of any person who is related to politics being tapped?

On Friday, Congress cited two audio clips on social media and demanded the arrest of Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat, alleging that he is heard in one of them during a conversation on a plot to bring down the Congress government in the state.

Congress also suspended two dissident MLAs -- sacked ministers Vishvendra Singh and Bhanwarlal Sharma -- from its primary membership. In an FIR lodged with Rajasthan police, the party alleged that Sharma was also heard in the audio clip.

The complaint by Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi mentioned Gajendra Singh but stopped short of identifying him as the union minister.

Both Shekhawat and Bhanwarlal Sharma have rejected the allegations, levelled by AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala at a press conference.

Sanjay Jain, the third man mentioned in the audio clips, was arrested late at night. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had referred to him as a BJP leader, a charge denied by that party.

The Special Operations Group (SOG) was sent to a hotel in BJP-ruled Haryana's Gurgaon the to seek the dissident MLAs' version in connection with an FIR lodged over the audio clips, the unit's Additional Director General Ashok Rathore said.

The team was stopped outside the hotel for about an hour by Haryana policemen deployed there. The Rajasthan police were let in later, but told at the reception that the MLA was not staying there, and they returned, Rathore said.

Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident MLAs are challenging the Congress move to disqualify them from the state assembly, and were initially asked to send their replies by 1 pm on Friday.