New Delhi, Sep 25: A special Delhi court, hearing the 2008 cash-for-vote scandal that rocked the Lok Sabha, Tuesday fixed Oct 15 for pronouncing its order on a plea seeking further investigation to trace the money trail.
Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal reserved the order for Oct 15 on former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Faggan Singh Kulaste's plea seeking a direction to police for tracing the source of the money involved in the case.
Anil Soni, counsel of Kulaste, requested the court to direct police to trace a man seen wearing a yellow shirt in the visuals of a sting carried out July 22, 2008, the day the scandal hit the Lok Sabha.
”The charge sheet filed by police has failed to give any details of the man. Police must tell whether that man wearing a yellow shirt is an accused or not and whether he is absconding,” said Soni.
Soni said that the man had actively used his mobile phone to contact (then Samajwadi Party leader) Amar Singh from co-accused and BJP MP Ashok Argal's house, as seen on the recorded sting CDs, but police have deliberately left out this aspect from investigation.
”Police have neither shown the man wearing yellow shirt to be wanted/absconder nor have seriously tried to find or trace him. If he is not traceable, it can be inferred he is murdered so that the money trail could not be established and the source of money remains a secret,” said Soni.
Police in their charge sheet, filed earlier, said that during investigation sufficient evidence had come on record that on the morning of July 22, 2008, Amar Singh hatched a criminal conspiracy with his secretary to deliver Rs.1 crore as illegal gratification.
On that day, three BJP MPs - Kulaste, Argal and Mahabir Singh Bhagora - waved wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha, alleging they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government in the trust vote.
