Kulkarni, BJP MPs get bail in cash-for-votes scam
16 Nov 2011
Former BJP advisor Sudheendra Kulkarni and two former BJP MPs, Mahavir Singh Bhagora and Faggan Singh Kulaste, have been granted bail by the Delhi High Court.
BJP MP Ashok Argal's anticipatory bail plea has also been accepted.
The High Court has also granted bail to Sanjeev Saxena and Sohail Hindustani, who allegedly worked as middlemen in the deal and were the first to be arrested in the case.
All the accused are required to pay Rs2 lakh each in surety.
On 22 July 2008, three BJP MPs - Mahavir Singh Bhagora, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Ashok Argal – made a dramatic entry into the parliament waving wads of money.
The BJP says the money was offered to them as bribe to abstain from voting in a trust vote that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA 1 government faced. The MPs were caught on camera receiving money from middlemen who allegedly were working on behalf of politician Amar Singh.
The Delhi Police charged Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was then an advisor to senior BJP leader LK Advani, of having masterminded the scam, arrested and put him behind bars in September this year.
Bhagora and Kulaste were arrested earlier that month as also Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, who, according to the Delhi Police, paid the money to the BJP MPs. Singh now faces charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act; and was the first person in the case to be granted bail last month on medical grounds. Singh has denied all charges against him.
Ashok Argal, still a BJP MP, has not been arrested yet as the police needed to get the Lok Sabha speaker's nod before doing so.
