On a revision petition of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in an alleged case of horse-trading in 2020 in a failed attempt to topple the incumbent Congress government in Rajasthan, the Metropolitan Court here has issued a notice to Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Jal Shakti Minister, to file his reply on July 14.
On June 13, the judge of an additional district and sessions court had admitted the revision petition seeking Shekhawat’s voice samples and issued the notice to the minister to file his reply on July 14, ACB sources told SNS here on Saturday. Thereafter, ACB officials served a notice on the minister in Delhi on June 16.
Amid the turmoil in the Ashok Gehlot government in the middle of 2020 in the wake of a revolt by Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and 19 MLAs, an audio tape crept into WhatsApp that laid bare the plot hatched against the government. The voices in the tape were alleged to have been that of Gajendra Singh, Sanjay Jain, and Congress MLAs, B L Sharma and Vishwendra Singh.
After the emergence of the tape in the public domain, the Chief Whip Dr Mahesh Joshi filed a case with the ACB on 10 June 2020 alleging horse-trading in Congress MLAs. The ACB registered the case on July 17, 2020.
Later in 2021, the ACB approached the Jaipur Metropolitan court to grant permission to take the voice sample of the minister, but the court declined permission. Now, after filing a revision petition in the case, the ACB issued the notice to the minister.