RS polls: Rajasthan Congress alleges horse trading, demands phone tapping of suspects

Subhash Chandra, who is officially contesting as an independent, has the support of 33 legislators including 30 of the BJP. He is short of eight votes to win the contest. Chandra on Tuesday claimed to have the support of many Congress MLAs asking Congress leader Sachin Pilot to switch sides.

Jaipur: With media baron Dr. Subhash Chandra entering the fray as a BJP-backed independent candidate in Rajya Sabha polls in Rajasthan, the Congress has alleged horse-trading. Rajasthan government's chief whip Mahesh Joshi has lodged a complaint with the ACB and the Election Commission seeking tapping of phones of suspects to tackle the horse-trading of MLAs.

Following the complaint by Joshi, Rajasthan ACB and Intelligence are expected to intensify surveillance of such suspicious people, who can influence the Rajya Sabha elections with money power.

For this, permission is being taken from the ACB Headquarters and the Intelligence Branch of Rajasthan Police by sending the numbers of suspicious persons to the ACS Home and Home Secretary. Pertinently, in 2020 also when complaints about alleged MLA horse-trading came to the fore, the SOG had arrested BJP leaders Ashok Singh and Bharat Malani on the basis of phone tapping.

Along with this, a complaint was also registered against three MLAs Om Prakash Hoodla, Suresh Tank, and Khushveer Singh, and all these complaints were transferred to ACB for investigation. Three audios related to alleged horse-trading had also gone viral at the time with the names of Sanjay Jain, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Bhavarlal Sharma coming up.

Chief Whip of the Rajasthan Government Mahesh Joshi had lodged an FIR against the three. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had also lodged an FIR against unknown police officers including Lokesh Sharma, OSD to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Delhi, alleging “wrongful tapping of phones and tarnishing the reputation” of the BJP leaders.

Former police officer Rajendra Singh Shekhawat said that all the investigating agencies can do phone tapping in a proper way on receipt of the complaint. “If there is any wrong use of the data of phone tapping, then a case can be registered. Tapping a person's phone illegally is considered a violation of his privacy rights. If it is found that the phone of the said person has been tapped illegally, then he/she can file a lawsuit by taking legal action under section 26-B of the Indian Telegraphic Act,” Shekhawat said.

There is a provision of imprisonment of up to 3 years for tapping the phone illegally. Shekhawat further said that under two sub-clauses of section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885, the central government or the state government has the right to phone tapping in the interest of emergency or public security. In the year 2007, amendments were made to this Act by the Government of India.

Mobile phone tapping can be done under sub-clauses 419 and 419-A of this Act. According to the rules of this act, phone tapping can be done for security, unity, and integrity of the country and public safety. Phone tapping is done in cases where evidence cannot be obtained as such. Subhash Chandra, who is officially contesting as an independent, has the support of 33 legislators including 30 of the BJP.

He is short of eight votes to win the contest. Chandra on Tuesday claimed to have the support of many Congress MLAs asking Sachin Pilot to switch sides.