New Delhi, October 12: The Delhi High Court Wednesday adjourned till Oct 18 the regular and interim pleas for bail by Rajya Sabha member and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, an accused in the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal.
Justice Ajit Bharihoke adjourned the matter till Oct 18 after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) submitted Amar Singh’s medical report. The court accepted the report and noted that it needed time to go through it.
Delhi Police opposed the petitioner’s bail pleas.
Delhi Police also filed a status report before the court stating 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 Sanjeev Saxena to deliver Rs.1 crore as illegal gratification.
‘In furtherance of this criminal conspiracy, Saxena, along with another person in yellow shirt, delivered Rs.1 crore cash at 4 Ferozeshah Road at about 11 a.m. to the three BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Singh Bhagora and Ashok Argal as advance out of a total deal of Rs.9 crore,’ said the status report.
The court Oct 3 directed the AIIMS and Delhi Police to submit Amar Singh’s medical report and status report.
Seeking interim bail, Amar Singh’s counsel argued that his client had undergone kidney transplant and was suffering from a urinary tract infection. He was ‘a sick and infirm person’, counsel submitted.
After a Delhi court Sep 28 rejected Amar Singh’s interim and regular bail pleas, the 55-year-old continues to be treated at the AIIMS where he was admitted Sep 12.
He had been arrested Sep 6 for his alleged involvement in an attempt to bribe MPs ahead of the July 2008 parliament trust vote.
On July 22, 2008, Kulaste, Bhagora and Argal waved wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha ahead of the trust vote, alleging they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.
After a Supreme Court rap for shoddy probe, police July 17 made their first arrest in the case, taking into custody Saxena.
Three days later, middleman Suhail Hindustani was arrested and Sep 6, Amar Singh and former BJP MPs Kulaste and Bhagora were taken into custody.
BJP leader L.K. Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni was the sixth person to be arrested in the case when he appeared before the court Sep 27.
A second supplementary charge sheet Oct 3 made Argal, a BJP MP from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, an accused in the case.
—-IANS—-