Cash-for-votes: Kulkarni again fails to appear before court
19 Sep 2011
Sudheendra Kulkarni, former aide to BJP leader L K Advani and one of the key figures in the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal, failed to appear before a special court in Delhi today despite being summoned.
His council told special judge Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal that Kulkarni was still in the US and so unable to attend.
The judge pointed out to him that earlier on 6 September, while pleading for exemption from personal appearance on the same grounds of being abroad, he had given an undertaking that he would appear before the court on the next date (today).
"He (Kulkarni) was supposed to come (to the court) today. You (Kulkarni's lawyer) had given an undertaking on the last date," the judge said.
The defence counsel responded by saying Kulkarni had not appeared today due to "some problem".
The scandal relates to the no-confidence motion in Parliament against the ruling United Progressive Alliance government in June 2008 after the Left parties withdrew support to the UPA in the wake of a nuclear deal with the US, which they termed as a sell-out of India's interests.
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