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Cash-for-votes scam: committee divided

Neena Vyas

Some members want further probe into Amar Singh’s role
There was no unanimity even among dissenters

NEW DELHI: There is lack of unanimity in the parliamentary committee that was given the task of establishing the facts in the cash-for-votes allegation related to the trust vote in the Lok Sabha on July 22 last.

The report was finalised at a meeting of the committee here on Thursday and will be presented to the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who set up the committee. The Speaker is expected to place it before the House for its approval.

The committee was set up after three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs waved wads of currency in the House when the debate on the trust vote was in progress. They had claimed that the money was given to them as bribe to get them to vote in favour of the trust vote and in violation of their own party whip directing them to vote against the government. The BJP MPs had alleged that Samajwadi Party (SP) general secretary Amar Singh had got the money delivered to them.

Most of the committee members refused to disclose anything about what transpired at Thursday’s meeting, the last of this committee. However, one member indicated that the report has suggested further investigation by an agency into the role of certain players, including Sanjeev Saxena (who allegedly took the cash to the residence of one of the three BJP MPs involved in the case), another person who physically carried the bundles of cash and was present, a driver named Ali who drove the BJP MPs to the residence of Mr. Amar Singh hours before the cash was delivered, and Sudheendra Kulkarni, political aide to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, who was present at the BJP MP’s residence where the cash transaction reportedly took place.

It seems that while some members of the committee wanted further investigation into the role of the three BJP MPs — Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora — there were others who felt that the part played by Mr. Amar Singh should have also been put under scanner.

“The big fish have been let off. Only the small players are to be further investigated, if the report is approved by Parliament,” one member of the committee said. There was no unanimity, not even among the dissenters. And those who disagreed have reportedly got their dissent recorded.

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