Cash-for-votes scam: Second chargesheet today

New Delhi, September 30: The Delhi Police is expected to file the second chargesheet in the cash-for-votes scam on Friday.

It would be important to observe whether the cahrgesheet deals only with the investigation into the role of the people involved in the scam or goes deeper to establish ownership of the cash.

However, as per reports, the police have not been able to establish the money trail and have still not indentified the owner of the money that was flashed in the floor of the Lok Sabha during the 2008 trust vote on the Indo-US nuke deal.

The police had stated earlier that Amar Singh had sent Rs 1 crore to the BJP MPs – Mahavir Bhagora, Faggan Singh Kulaste, and Ashok Argal — through his secretary Sanjeev Saxena. Argal is still an MP while the other two are ex-MPs.

As part of its investigation, police have identified the banks from where the money – 10 bundles of Rs 10 lakh each of 1000/500 denomination – was withdrawn. However, as there is no system of maintain a record of the serial numbers of the notes that are withdrawn by individual customers, the police hit a dead end.

The money trail is important as the Opposition has been targeting the government for going after the ‘whistleblowers’ and not working towards identifying the real beneficiaries – who they claim is the UPA government.

Congress has in turn alleged that BJP orchestrated the sting operation in 2008 after it became clear that UPA was going to win the trust vote.

—-Agencies