BJP demands CBI probe into Rajasthan audio tapes

New Delhi, July 18 (IANS) The BJP on Saturday hit back on the Ashok Gehlot Government when it not only denied charges of alleged bid to break the Congress party but also alleged that the dessert state is witnessing an “indirect emergency”.

The BJP was referring to the purported phone conversations that were leaked by Gehlot camp.

“Is the phone of every person in Rajasthan, who has any concern with politics, is being tapped? Is Emergency not being imposed indirectly in Rajasthan?,” asked BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra in a press conference here on Saturday.

Calling the Rajasthan political crisis a “drama”, Patra alleged it is a brazen cocktail of conspiracy, lies, fraud and defiance of law.

“The whole conspiracy is being hatched in their house and through some audio tapes it is being alleged that the BJP is trying to sabotage the Congress party,” said Patra. He demanded a CBI probe into this matter, to ascertain whether phone tapping was done or SOPs were followed. He also questioned if the voice in the leaks are authentic, why the FIR states it as “purported”.

This attack comes in the wake of an FIR filed by the SOG in Rajasthan against Union Minister and BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and two others on the basis of a complaint by Congress whip Mahesh Joshi soon after three audio clips with alleged conversations on toppling the Ashok Gehlot government were released by Rajasthan’s ruling party.

However, Shekhawat has denied any of the tapes has his voice while another BJP leader said the tapes were doctored.

The clips have recorded purported conversation between Shekhawat, Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma, a Jaipur resident and BJP leader Sanjay Jain while discussing plans and actions to topple the Congress government.

Now, the BJP has based its counter attack on these purported conversations to raise the “phone tapping of politicians in Rajasthan” charge against Congress while labelling it am “indirect emergency”.

–IANS

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