Take voice samples of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, says Rajasthan high court

JAIPUR: The chief metropolitan magistrate court here on Wednesday directed the additional chief judicial magistrate to take steps to get voice samples of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and alleged middleman Sanjay Jain in the MLA bribery case.


The court order follows an application by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB), seeking directions to take voice samples of the duo as the investigation had been hampered by the resistance of

Shekhawat

and Jain to provide the same.

The special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan police had registered three FIRs on complaints lodged by Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi. Two of the accused were arrested in the first case, registered on July 10 last year.

A notice was sent to the then deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot for recording his statement in connection with the matter, which led to the rebellion by Pilot and 18 MLAs.

Two other cases of sedition and criminal conspiracy were registered on July 17 after some audio tapes containing telephonic conversations allegedly about horse trading of MLAs were leaked. One of these FIRs named alleged middleman Jain, Congress Sardarshahar MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma and one Gajendra Singh, who the Congress claimed was Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Following the compromise worked out by the Congress central leadership with the rebel faction led by Pilot, the SOG dropped the charge of sedition but transferred the case to ACB to investigate corruption charges. The ACB has been trying to get the voice samples of both Shekhawat and Jain but to no avail. Therefore, it approached the court for a direction.