A Delhi court on Thursday framed charges of criminal conspiracy and misusing official position against 11 former MPs in the 2005 cash-for-query scam case, stemming from a sting operation.
Additional Sessions Judge Kiran Bansal framed the charges after the accused pleaded not guilty.
The court fixed January 12, 15 and 16 for the trial to begin, with the recording of evidence from the prosecution witnesses.
The 10 former members of the Lok Sabha who will face trial are Narendra Kumar Kushawaha, Annasaheb M.K. Patil, Manoj Kumar, Y.G. Mahajan, Pradeep Gandhi, Suresh Chandel, Ramsevak Singh, Lal Chandra Kol, Rajaram Pal and Chandra Pratap Singh. Five of them belonged to the BJP, three to the Bahujan Samaj Party and one each to the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. The eleventh accused, Chhattrapal Singh Lodha of the BJP, was a Rajya Sabha member.
13 accused in all
The court also framed charges against Ravinder Kumar, the then private assistant to one of the accused MPs. There were 13 accused in the case, and one of them, Vijay Phogat, died after being charge-sheeted.
The Delhi police’s Crime Branch investigated the case on the basis of the reports by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, which had expelled them after a lengthy debates.
During arguments on the framing of charges, Special Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava said the accused had entered into a criminal conspiracy and misused their official position to raise questions in exchange for a consideration.
Journalists Anirudh Bahal and Suhasini Raj of the Cobra Post.com website had conducted the sting operation called Operation Duryodhan, and it was telecast on the Aajtak news channel.
