Delhi Police give Cong, SP clean chit in cash-for-vote scam

New Delhi: Congress and Samajwadi Party today virtually got a clean chit in cash-for-vote scam in a local court which was told by Delhi Police that none from the two parties had contacted Sohail Hindustani, the alleged “master orchestra” of conspiracy to bribe BJP MPs to vote in favour of Manmohan Singh government in a trust vote in 2008. “During investigation, it has come on record that neither any leader of Congress Party has made any effort to contact Hindustani nor any SP leader contacted him to strike a deal with MPs,” the crime branch of Delhi police told Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal who has remanded Hindustani to police custody till tomorrow. [caption id=“attachment_45933” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“BJP worker Suhail Hindustani is brought to Tis Hazari court with Sanjeev Saxena, a close aide of former Samwajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, in connection with the cash-for-votes scam case. PTI”]  [/caption]The police said “rather it is clear that it was only Hindustani who was making repeated attempts to contact various persons to strike a deal for monetary considerations in the name of three BJP MPs. The judge also extended the police custody of another accused Sanjeev Saxena, alleged to be a close aide of Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, till tomorrow after the prosecution submitted they both need to be confronted to complete the chain of events. During the arguments, advocate Anand, appearing for Hindustani, accused the Delhi police of giving a clean chit to Congress party despite the fact that the probe is still on. While seeking two-days police custody of both Hindustani and Saxena, public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan said 22 July, 2008, was the “most unfortunate day for a democratic set up” as money was waved in Parliament during the debate on the confidence motion. He said the seven-member parliamentary committee, constituted by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to probe the matter, had also submitted its report running into 700 pages in which they had indicted three persons for the scam — Sanjeev Saxena, Sohail Hindustani and Sudheendra Kulkarni. The prosecutor submitted they have examined various persons in their probe and as per the evidence and documents, Hindustani was the “master orchestra of the well-hatched conspiracy.” The prosecution submitted they have recorded the statement of SP Gupta who said Hindustani offered him the support of three BJP MPs on the motion of confidence to suit the interests of Congress party. PTI