The Delhi High Court on Monday stayed the summons issued by the trial court to Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh, asking him to appear before it on November 3 in the cash-for-vote case.
Justice Suresh Kait asked the Delhi Police to file a reply to Mr. Singh's petition, challenging the order, by November 15, next date of hearing.
The court also asked the police to submit the audio and video CDs of a sting operation which exposed the alleged buying of MPs to help the Manmohan Singh government win a trust motion in July 2008.
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Despite the police giving the SP leader a clean chit, the trial court summoned him as an accused, saying there was sufficient evidence against him.
“Prima facie it appears that the accused was part and parcel and an important link in the chain of events of the alleged criminal conspiracy,” special judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said in her order.
The police had told the court that though Mr. Singh was seen at Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ashok Argal's house in a video tape provided by CNN-IBN, which had conducted the sting operation, his utterances were not audible and the material wasn't enough to book him.
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However, Ms. Sehgal said: “The material placed on record and the signed statement [of the former BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahabir Singh Bhagora and sitting MP Ashok Argal] are sufficient to show Rewati Raman Singh was the person who led the three and arranged a meeting with [the former SP leader] Amar Singh.”