Cash-for-vote-scam: Order reserved on framing of charges

A Delhi court Thursday reserved its order on framing of charges in the 2008 cash-for-vote-scam case involving Rajya Sabha member and former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh.

Special Judge Narottam Kaushal reserved his order on framing of charges for Oct 19.

On July 22, 2008, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora and Ashok Argal waved wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha ahead of a trust vote, alleging they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.

In its first charge sheet filed in Aug 2011, the Delhi Police had accused Amar Singh and Sudheendra Kulkarni, the media advisor to Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was the prime minister, of conspiring and masterminding the cast-for-vote scam to bribe some MPs ahead of a confidence vote in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008.

Besides Singh and Kulkarni, BJP MPs Argal and Kulaste and former MP Bhagora, Sanjeev Saxena, Amar Singh's former aide and BJP activist Sohail Hindustani are accused in the case.

In 2009, the case was registered on the recommendation by a parliamentary panel which had probed the scam.

All the accused have been booked under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and for criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.

Argal, Kulaste and Bhagora had earlier claimed it was a sting operation to highlight horse trading in parliament ahead of the July 22, 2008 trust vote.

Earlier, Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh was also made an accused in the case by the trial court which had said there was sufficient material to show that he was part of the alleged criminal conspiracy.

However, the Delhi High Court had quashed the trial court's order making him an accused in the case.