Friday, August 5, 2011

Amar Singh in cash-for-vote scam

Delhi Police told the Supreme Court on Thursday that its investigations into the cash-for-vote scam made out a clear case under the Prevention of Corruption Act, with the needle of suspicion firmly pointing to former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.

Suhail Hindustani, who was the alleged conduit for the payment of the bribe money, and some other personalities could face charges under Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with Section 120B (conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code, Delhi Police sources said.

 Additional solicitor general Harin Rawal on Thursday made a mention of the report, filed in the registry, before a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha who are to hear the case on Friday.

The police sought further time to unravel the entire conspiracy and promised to keep the court updated periodically about the progress made in the investigations.

Delhi Police quickened its probe into the case after a rebuke from the Supreme Court for its lethargy in investigating the bribery scam.

Within days of the court pulling up Delhi Police on July 15 for being slack in investigating the two year-old case of serious consequences, police arrested Sanjeev Saxena, considered close to Amar Singh, and followed it by picking up Suhail Hindustani, who attempted to drag the PM and Congress leaders into the controversy.

On July 15, the court had criticized Delhi Police for its "inefficient and directionless" probe into the cash-for-vote scam, which had cast shadows on the Manmohan Singh government's confidence vote victory in Parliament in 2008.


After a Wikileaks disclosure pointing to use of bribes in the 2008 trust vote triggered a furore in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had attempted to blunt the opposition attack by saying a parliamentary committee had probed it and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove bribing of MPs. "I am convinced that taking the report as a whole, this is a correct inference," he had said on March 23 on the floor of Parliament.

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