2008 cash-for-vote scam: Court defers order on charge

A Delhi court today deferred pronouncement of order on framing of charges in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam, involving expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and two BJP MPs.
Special Judge Narottam Kaushal was on leave and the matter has been posted for October 28.
Amar Singh, accompanied by bollywood actress and his former party colleague Jaya Prada, and six other accused turned up in the court.
Earlier, the court had reserved its order on framing of charges for today.
In the arguments on charge during the past few months, Amar had sought discharge from the case, saying there was no evidence to show that he had induced BJP MPs to cross vote in the trust vote in the Lok Sabha in 2008 in return for money.

The Delhi Police, in its first charge sheet filed in August 2011, had accused Amar Singh and L K Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni of "conspiring" and "masterminding" the cast-for-vote scam to bribe some MPs ahead of a confidence vote in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008.

Besides Amar Singh and Kulkarni, BJP MPs Ashok Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste and former MP Mahabir Singh Bhagora Sanjeev Saxena, Amar Singh's former aide and BJP activist Sohail Hindustani are accused in the case.
The case was registered in 2009 on the recommendation by a Parliamentary panel which had probed the scam.

All the accused have been booked under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and for criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code.
During the arguments, police had rejected the claim of the accused that it was a whistleblowing operation or a sting and said that this plea was not even accepted by the Parliamentary inquiry committee.
Argal, Kulaste and Bhagora had earlier claimed it was a sting operation to highlight horse trading in Parliament ahead of the July 22, 2008 trust vote.