Cash-for-vote scam: Police say BJP men were no whistle-blowers

The Delhi police today opposed the bail pleas of senior BJP leader LK Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and two former MPs of the party, arrested for their alleged roles in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam, questioning their claim of being whistle-blowers in the scam.

"Every accused in the case terms himself as a whistle-blower as if they have saved the country. If they are taking the plea of being whistle-blowers in the scam, they have to establish it by way of evidence. Not even a single aspect shows that they were actually whistle-blowers," public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said.

Opposing the bail pleas of Kulkarni and former MPs Faggan Singh Kulsate and Mahabir Singh Bhagora, the public prosecutor said the lawmakers had received Rs one crore as illegal gratification at around 11 am on July 22, 2008, and they retained the bribe money for five hours.

"From 11 am to 4 pm, they (BJP MPs) waited and did not inform any law enforcing agency. The time was spent waiting for rest of the money," Mohan told Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal.

The prosecutor said AB Bardhan, general secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI), had claimed to have possessed a list of MPs allegedly being bribed during the trust vote and said their rate was Rs 25 crore but the accused MPs preferred to contact co-accused Sohail Hindustani who himself was trying to make money by way of commission from the list.

"You (BJP MPs) did not contact AB Bardhan, an honest person, but you contacted Hindustani, who was going around with the list of vulnerable MPs himself trying to make money out of it," he said.