NEW DELHI, Apr 30:
A local court conducting the proceedings in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam case today pulled up Delhi Police for the delay in supplying the transcript of the CD of the sting to the accused persons.
Special judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal questioned the police for delay in handing over the copy of the transcript to the accused and directed them to supply it by May 8.
The police, however, today supplied a copy of the CD to the accused present in the court.
Meanwhile, former BJP MP and co-accused Faggan Singh Kulaste accused police of flouting the directions of the Supreme Court to trace the source of money used to allegedly bribe some parliamentarians ahead of the 2008 confidence vote in Lok Sabha.
The apex court had last year directed the agency to trace the source of money while refusing to monitor the probe.
“It is unfortunate that Delhi Police has chosen to stop further investigation to find complete trail of money or the real beneficiaries and have failed in their public duty in spite of clear directions of the Supreme Court,” Kulaste’s counsel Anil Soni said in an application moved before the court.
He also alleged that the police “has chosen not to probe or reveal the call details of S P Gupta, Aman Arora and Lovely Singh although co-accused Sohail Hindustani has categorically stated that they were instrumental in introducing/ conversing with senior leaders of the Congress (especially Ahmed Patel) to make a deal to pay BJP ‘venerable’ MPs to vote in favour of the UPA”.
Kulaste also demanded the voice identification of Congress leader Ahmed Patel to trace the source of money, saying, “co-accused Ashok Argal has categorically stated that co-accused Amar Singh had made them talk to Patel on July 22, 2008 before the delivery of Rs 1 crore, over phone.”
Pointing at the man in the yellow shirt as seen in the controversial CD, he said it could be seen that he had actively used his mobile phone to contact Amar Singh from Argal’s house but the police has not tried to trace him.
“If he is not traceable, it can be inferred he is murdered so that trial of money could not be established and the source of money remains a secret forever,” he alleged.
He also said that the “news channel involved in the incident ought to have been inquired into for not airing the video recording immediately”.
The other aspect, he said has deliberately not been investigated by the police is that according to the second charge sheet 19 MPs from various political parties cross-voted in favour of the UPA.
“In such circumstances, it could safely be presumed that trail of money of this case could lead to larger conspiracy of rampant corruption adopted by UPA Government to save itself in the same manner,” he said.
The police has to file its reply on the application on May 10.
On July 22, 2008 some BJP MPs had waved wads of currency notes on the floor of Lok Sabha during the trust vote faced by the UPA-I Government, claiming they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh Government.
Samajwadi Party’s former general secretary Amar Singh, BJP leader L K Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, BJP MP Argal, two ex-party MPs Kulaste and Mahabir Singh Bhagora along with Amar Singh’s former aide Sanjeev Saxena and alleged BJP activist Suhail Hindustani are accused in the case. (PTI)
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