Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Monday hit out at Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot for indulging in his character assassination due to frustration as he had defeated Gehlot’s son in the last Lok Sabha election, and falsely imputing him in the Sanjeevani credit cooperative society scam.
“The SOG could not prove me guilty for four and a half years but it took the CM a few minutes to term me an accused,” Shekhawat at a press conference in Jaipur.
Gehlot was in Jodhpur on Sunday and met victims of the Sanjeevani credit cooperative society scam.
Reacting to certain remarks made by Gehlot in Jodhpur, reiterating his allegation that Shekhawat was involved in a scam committed by the Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society, the Union minister said, “The CM is trying to get political mileage. He has on several occasions used public platforms to vent out his personal enmity against me and called me names such as useless, looter and fugitive.”
“The CM called me accused yesterday… he defamed me with the intention of murdering me politically. Did he want to give a direction to the police? Or did he want to get political mileage? Or did he want to take revenge for his son’s shameful defeat in the 2018 assembly elections,” the minister asked.
Giving details of the Sanjeevani credit cooperative society case, Shekhawat said the SOG has filed three charge sheets in the court but did not mention Shekhawat or anyone from his family involved in the case.
The Union minister added that the Sanjeevani was formed under the Congress government in 2013 and the main accused in the scam was trying for the Congress ticket from Pachpadra in 2018.
Shekhawat said Gehlot chose to meet victims of one credit society only which raises doubts about his intention.
In 2020, Shekhawat had said the chief minister took the fight further and tried to show that he was involved in a conspiracy to topple the Gehlot government.
Audio tapes were leaked that purportedly had conversations between Shekhawat, a rebel Congress leader and a middleman. Shekhawat said the ACB and SOG had filed a sedition case against him but withdrew it 20 days later. He said he had not got any notice from the ACB to give his voice sample.
“The CM kept saying that I was running from the law and not giving my voice sample. But the CM never asked for voice samples of those involved with me in the purported audio,” he said.
On Gehlot’s allegation that Shekhawat had sought Z security from the central government due to fear of arrest by the SOG, Shekhawat said he was provided Z security when he became the BJP’s Punjab in-charge ahead of the polls.
Gehlot added that despite receiving threat calls from Khalistanis and separatists did not ask for security. The Centre, after assessing the threat, had given him the Z security.
