Phone-tapping case: Ashok Gehlot's OSD Lokesh Sharma not to appear before Delhi Police on Saturday

JAIPUR: Lokesh Sharma, the officer on special duty (OSD) to Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, expressed his inability to appear before the Delhi Police's crime branch in a phone-tapping case on Saturday.
Sharma said he was busy with some personal work and would not be able to travel to Delhi to appear personally before the crime branch.
He said he would be available after two weeks.
However, he said he would be available virtually any time.
Sharma had already obtained a stay from the Delhi high court against any coercive action against him on a petition seeking to quash the FIR.
The matter is again scheduled to be heard on August 6.
The crime branch had issued a notice to Lokesh Sharma asking him to be present at its office in Delhi on July 24 for questioning.
The notice was served under section 160 CrPC on an FIR filed by Union water resources minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Delhi against him.
Lokesh Sharma was accused of making an audio viral where one Gajendra Singh talking to a middleman Sanjay Jain for horse-trading of Congress MLAs during the political crisis in the state last year in July following the rebellion by Sachin Pilot.
The Congress in Rajasthan alleged that the Gajendra Singh in the audio is that of the Union minister.
The matter is under investigation by the ACB.
Earlier, Congress chief whip in the assembly Mahesh Sharma was also issued notice by the Crime Branch in the same case for questioning but he did not present before it.
"I am a senior citizen and if the Crime Branch wants to record my statement, it can come to Jaipur," Mahesh Sharma had said.