Rajasthan phone tapping case: Delhi HC stays arrest of Gehlot's OSD till Oct 18

New Delhi/Jaipur, Oct 11 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday continued the stay on the arrest of Lokesh Sharma, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's OSD and state unit Congress Central War Room co-chairman, in connection with the 2020 Rajasthan phone tapping case.

The next hearing in the case has been scheduled on October 18.

Lokesh Sharma did not appear before the crime branch on Wednesday, citing his busy schedule. 

He was earlier questioned for four hours on Tuesday by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police. 

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday kept the stay intact on the arrest of Sharma till October 18. 

On Wednesday, a hearing was held in the Delhi High Court in the Rajasthan phone tapping case. Sharma's lawyer represented him in court.

The hearing into the phone tapping case in Delhi High Court lasted around 40 minutes. 

Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal presented the case in the High Court on behalf of Lokesh Sharma. 

He termed the allegations by Delhi Police baseless. 

During the hearing, Sharma's advocate argued that the case was filed after 8 months, and no reason was given for the delay in filing the case. 

Aggarwal told the court that Delhi Police said that there was a conference call between 3 numbers, none of those three numbers belonged to the complainant (Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat), saying "in such a situation, how can the complainant allege that his call was recorded"? 

"The entire incident was found to have happened in Rajasthan, then how can Delhi Police file an FIR? The of all three numbers are also not from Delhi," he said. 

Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain accused Lokesh Sharma and Rajasthan government officials of not co-operating in the investigation. 

Rajasthan government's lawyer Siddharth Luthra objected to this and termed the allegations of the Additional Solicitor General baseless. 

In the High Court, Jain demanded lifting the stay on Sharma's arrest. 

The High Court had earlier stayed the arrest of Lokesh Sharma till February 7, 2024. 

Delhi Police had filed a petition to lift the stay. 

The matter is related to the political crisis that rocked the political arena of Rajasthan in 2020. 

Lokesh Sharma then released an audio clip to the media. 

In the audio clip, there was a conversation between a person named 'Gajendra Singh', an MLA and a broker to topple the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government. 

Soon after that, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat filed a complaint with the Delhi Police, saying the phone calls of public representatives are being tapped to tarnish their image.

On March 25, 2021, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police had registered a case against OSD Lokesh Sharma. 

After that, Lokesh Sharma filed a petition in the Delhi High Court.