The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday rose to the defence of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of senior party leader L K Advani, for his alleged role in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam, saying whistleblowers were being targeted in a one-sided investigation. It also alleged members of the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) were not even called for questioning by investigators in the scam.
“The people who are whistleblowers of the entire scam are being sent to Tihar Jail but members of the Congress party and Samajwadi Party have not even been asked to appear before investigators for questioning. Another person who had shown cash to US embassy members was also not asked questioned. The people who retained power because of the cash-for-vote-scam are not even questioned,” said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman.
Senior party leaders said the scam had become clear after revelations by whistleblower website Wikileaks that US embassy officials were shown cash that was supposed to be delivered to lawmakers of Opposition parties so that they would vote in favour of the central government.
Kulkarni was arrested on Tuesday, soon after he appeared in a local court for his alleged role in the scam. The court rejected his interim bail plea and sent him to Tihar Jail. He is the sixth person to be arrested in the case. Kulkarni’s bail plea would now be heard on October 1.
The BJP member finally appeared before the court after the bench had threatened to issue an arrest warrant as he had failed to appear before the court twice so far.
“There cannot be a charge of entrapment against whistleblowers when there is a charge of bribe giving against others,” Arun Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, told reporters. Jaitley was answering a question on the role of former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh who is an accused in the case.
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Two former BJP MPs, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagore, and Amar Singh were arrested earlier this month. Kulaste and Bhagore are in jail, while Singh is in judicial custody.
The BJP alleges three of its MPs — Kulaste, Bhagore and Ashok Argal — were approached by Amar Singh ahead of the trust vote in July 2008. The three BJP members had displayed wads of note to the tune of Rs one crore on the floor of the Lok Sabha during the vote. They had alleged the money was given to them to buy their votes.
In the course of the investigations, the Delhi Police found that Singh had provided the money to be paid to the three BJP MPs in the cash-for-vote scam.
According to the Delhi Police, Kulkarni, along with members of the Samajwadi Party, had tried to influence the 2008 trust vote of the first United Progressive Alliance government after he could not influence Congress MPs. The police claim Kulkarni had masterminded a sting operation of Samajwadi Party members who had approached them with a promise to pay a total of Rs 3 crore.