Delhi HC to hear phone tapping case on Oct 11

Jaipur: The Delhi high court on Thursday agreeed to Delhi Police’s application for an early hearing of the phone tapping case involving Lokesh Sharma, officer on special duty (OSD) to CM Ashok Gehlot. The court listed the next hearing on October 11, advancing it from the date of February 7 next year.The court said that Sharma would enjoy the protection from coercive action granted to him by the high court till the next date of hearing. The Delhi Police had said in its application that its plea for lifting the relief to Sharma was getting infructuous due to the long delay in hearing the case and the Rajasthan government not cooperating in the investigation. The application said, “Due to non-cooperation in the investigation by the petitioner and Rajasthan Police, the investigation is not making headway and the petitioner, as well as the Rajasthan Police, has been taking undue advantage of the interim protection granted to them by this Court.”The application said that the Rajasthan home secretary had informed that records pertaining to the information being sought by Delhi Police had been destroyed. “The petitioner is the officer on special duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister having complete access to the hierarchy of the State of Rajasthan and thus, with the interim protection available, has been acting in a high-headed and arbitrary manner to ensure that the investigation is not carried out in a proper manner by Delhi Police,” the application said. Sharma has personally appeared before the Delhi Police for questioning four times in the seven notices for personal appearances sent to him. The case was filed by Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who accused Sharma of making viral audio clips of the alleged horse-trading of MLAs during the political crisis in the Gehlot government in July-August 2020.In the last hearing on August 9, the court had listed the next hearing for February 7.