Jaipur, Jul 17 (UNI) Rajasthan police on Friday registered two FIRs against three persons on a complaint lodged by the Congress in connection with horse-trading of MLAs to overthrow the Gehlot government.
The FIRs were registered against Congress MLA Bhanwarlal Sharma and BJP leaders Sanjay Jain and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on the complaint filed by Congress party chief whip Mahesh Joshi.
As per media reports, the FIR carries the name of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat but without his designation--Union Minister.
The cases were lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 124-A (sedition) and 120-B (conspiracy).
The development comes against the backdrop of an audio clip of purported conversation between Shekhawat, Sharma and Jain that surfaced on Thursday evening and soon went viral. In the tape, conversation on toppling the Congress government can be allegedly heard.
The clip again brought Congress and the BJP on the front-foot with former demanding resignation of Shekhawat while the latter calling it 'doctored'.
Shekhawat, while talking to mediapersons, denied that any of the tapes has his voice and said he was ready to face any probe.
Ripping through Mr Shekhawat's assertions, Mr Joshi asked the Union Minister to give his voice sample for investigations so that truth is out in open.
"If Shekhawat is saying that it is not his voice, he should give his voice sample. We will be also very happy if it's not him otherwise it will be a blot on politics," Mr Joshi said.
The Ashok Gehlot government had constituted Special Operations Group to investigate horse-trading charges during Rajya Sabha polls. An FIR was registered against two persons last week on the charges of trying to destablise the Congress government.
Earlier, in the morning, Congress spokesperson and senior leader Randeep Surjewala held a press conference here and demanded registration of FIRs against all those who were heard in the audio tape.
"The recording is enough proof that give and take of money has taken place. This has been done for changing the loyalties of the MLAs with the intention of toppling the elected government of Rajasthan," he claimed and demanded Shekhawat's arrest.
He also accused the higher-ups in the BJP in New Delhi of being involved in the alleged conspiracy.
Meanwhile, Congress suspended its Rajasthan MLAs Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh over "anti-party activities".
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