A magistrate’s court here has issued directions for getting voice samples of Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and an alleged middleman, Sanjay Jain, in connection with the audio tapes leaked last year, which contained purported conversations about toppling the Rajasthan government through horse-trading.
The court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate gave the direction on Wednesday on an application moved by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The court granted the permission and ordered that the magistrate of the Rent Control Tribunal, authorised for the purpose, would conduct further proceedings for collecting the voice samples.
Congress party’s chief whip Mahesh Joshi had lodged a complaint with the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Rajasthan police in July last year, after which an FIR about the attempts to pull down the government was registered. However, the FIR did not mention that “Gajendra Singh” referred to in the clips was Union Minister Mr. Shekhawat.
The SOG closed the case after dropping the sedition charges and transferred the matter to the ACB, a few days before a special session of the Assembly was convened, in which the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government won a confidence vote. The trust vote brought down the curtains on a month-long uncertainty created by the rebellion of former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 18 other MLAs.
