New Delhi, Sep 2 : The Supreme Court today asked the Delhi Police to trace the source of money used to allegedly bribe some parliamentarians ahead of a confidence vote in Lok Sabha in 2008.
While asking police to trace the source of the funds, a bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha, however, refused to monitor the case further, saying the charge sheet in what is known as the cash-for-vote scam has already been filed in the court.
"The objective has been achieved. Everything should be left to concerned criminal court which is hearing the case. We were on minor aspect. Who were involved and in what manner is to be decided by the court (trial court)," the bench said.
Former Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh on whose plea the apex court had issued a slew of directions in the scam pleaded the matter should not be disposed of and the apex court keep the matter pending.
The court, however, was not convinced with the plea and said he can approach it at any stage when its intervention is required.Delhi Police also assured the bench that the probe will be completed within four weeks.
As soon as the court proceedings started, the bench remarked that Delhi Police has not found out the source of money and said the agency must focus on this aspect. “You (Delhi Police) have not done what we said earlier. Find out the source of money.
You can do it, if you want to do it. You are capable of doing so,” the bench said. During the last hearing, the court had slammed the police for its “half-hearted and hopeless” probe and had asked the police to take the probe to its logical conclusion.
The Delhi Police, thereafter, had intensified its probe and filed the charge sheet on August 24 in a Delhi court against six persons including Samajwadi Party's former general secretary Amar Singh, BJP leader L K Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, two ex-BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahabir Singh Bhagora along with Amar Singh's former aide Sanjeev Saxena and alleged BJP activist Suhail Hindustani.
While Saxena and Suhail are in judicial custody, the trial court has issued summons to all the accused to be present before it on September 6.
The police, in its charge sheet, has accused Amar Singh and Sudheendra Kulkarni of “conspiring” and “masterminding” to bribe MPs to win their votes in the confidence motion after the Left withdrew outside support to government following differences on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
The case dates back to July 22, 2008 when some BJP MPs had waved wads of currency notes on the floor of Lok Sabha during the trust vote faced by the UPA-I government, claiming they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.PTI
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