Cash scam case: Court reserves order on framing of charges

A Delhi court today reserved its order on framing of charges in the 2008 cash-for-vote-scam case involving former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, two BJP MPs and others.
Special judge Narottam Kaushal is likely to pronounce the order on November 16.
The judge reserved his order after hearing arguments on certain points on which he had sought clarification from the prosecution and counsel for the accused.
Earlier, during the arguments on framing of charges, Singh had sought discharge from the case saying there was no evidence to show that he had induced BJP MPs to cross vote in the trust vote in the Lok Sabha in 2008 in return for money.

Delhi Police, in its first charge sheet filed in August 2011, had accused Singh and L K Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni of "conspiring" and "masterminding" the cast-for-vote scam to bribe some MPs ahead of the confidence vote in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008.
Besides Singh and Kulkarni, BJP MPs Ashok Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste and former MP Mahabir Singh Bhagora, Singh's former aide Sanjeev Saxena and BJP activist Sohail Hindustani are accused in the case.

The case was registered in 2009 on the recommendation of 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.

During the arguments, police had rejected the claim of the accused that it was a whistleblowing operation or a sting and said that this plea was not even accepted by the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee.