Sanjeev Saxena, an accused in the cash-for-votes scam case, has moved a bail application alleging that police officers pressured him to sign a pre-typed statement which had the names of several leaders belonging to parties across the political spectrum, as being “kingpins” of the July 22, 2008 episode in Parliament
Saxena, now in judicial custody in the Tihar Central Jail here, said he was coerced during his remand in police custody. He alleged that the police were forcing him to implicate the former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh as his employer and on whose behalf he was working.
“The applicant stated before the police officials that he never worked for Amar Singh, though he was working with another general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, Shahid Siddiqui, who was a colleague of Amar Singh; and only because of that, the applicant had some interaction with Amar Singh.” Saxena alleged that police officers “forcibly” took his signature on “some blank papers.”
The cash-for-votes was in “furtherance of a conspiracy hatched by the BJP and the BSP to destabilise the UPA government and [now when the ‘conspiracy' had failed], the conspirators were seeking to malign [senior Congress leader] Ahmed Patel and Amar Singh,” he said.
Saxena claimed that he had sought an appointment with both leaders to explain that he had become an “unwitting accessory” to the conspiracy and to “set the record straight.” Though he could not meet them, he had sent them a handwritten apology.
Saxena said there was a link between the cash reported missing from the BJP headquarters and the events that led up to the cash-for-votes episode. He accused a senior BJP leader and an office functionary of the party of involvement in the episode.
The bail plea will be heard on August 18.
