The Intelligence Bureau took away for questioning the three BJP MPs who today claimed they were offered crores by senior Samajwadi Party leaders to abstain from voting.
Sources said that if the Speaker felt the need for a more thorough probe, a CBI inquiry could be ordered.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee handed over the cash that the MPs waved in the House — they said it was Rs 1 crore — to Delhi police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal.
Sources in the Intelligence Bureau said the three men had told investigators that Morena MP Ashok Argal was the first to be approached by Samajwadi leader Amar Singh. Argal’s constituency is going to be affected by delimitation and he had been promised an Assembly seat instead.
“He was apparently told he was anyway going to be without any constituency in the next Lok Sabha elections. This is perhaps the last time he would be in the House, so he might as well make money and abstain from voting,” an IB official said. He was given Rs 1 crore as advance and offered another Rs 2 crore after the voting, the MPs told investigators.
“Argal had also been asked to get some more MPs on board. He called Mahavir Bhagora and bragged about the money he had got. Now Bhagora, according to what they have been saying, informed L.K. Advani. When the BJP leader questioned Argal, he said he was trying to expose the SP and the Congress. He claimed even Congress leader Ahmad Patel was in touch with him,” the official said, giving the MPs’ version.
With Advani’s go-ahead, the two got Faggan Singh Kulaste, MP from Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, on board and did a sting operation along with a television channel.
The channel, CNN-IBN, however, said it did not telecast the tapes because some loose ends were yet to be tied. The tapes would be handed over to the Speaker, it added.
In 2005, a sting operation by another channel had caught Kulaste on camera demanding bribe for sanctioning local area funds.
Railway minister Lalu Prasad said the three MPs should be subjected to a narco-analysis test to check if they were speaking the truth. “Yeh sab jali hai. (This is all planted),” he said, even as the Opposition demanded the Prime Minister’s head.
source:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080723/jsp/nation/story_9588492.jsp
Sources said that if the Speaker felt the need for a more thorough probe, a CBI inquiry could be ordered.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee handed over the cash that the MPs waved in the House — they said it was Rs 1 crore — to Delhi police commissioner Y.S. Dadwal.
Sources in the Intelligence Bureau said the three men had told investigators that Morena MP Ashok Argal was the first to be approached by Samajwadi leader Amar Singh. Argal’s constituency is going to be affected by delimitation and he had been promised an Assembly seat instead.
“He was apparently told he was anyway going to be without any constituency in the next Lok Sabha elections. This is perhaps the last time he would be in the House, so he might as well make money and abstain from voting,” an IB official said. He was given Rs 1 crore as advance and offered another Rs 2 crore after the voting, the MPs told investigators.
“Argal had also been asked to get some more MPs on board. He called Mahavir Bhagora and bragged about the money he had got. Now Bhagora, according to what they have been saying, informed L.K. Advani. When the BJP leader questioned Argal, he said he was trying to expose the SP and the Congress. He claimed even Congress leader Ahmad Patel was in touch with him,” the official said, giving the MPs’ version.
With Advani’s go-ahead, the two got Faggan Singh Kulaste, MP from Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, on board and did a sting operation along with a television channel.
The channel, CNN-IBN, however, said it did not telecast the tapes because some loose ends were yet to be tied. The tapes would be handed over to the Speaker, it added.
In 2005, a sting operation by another channel had caught Kulaste on camera demanding bribe for sanctioning local area funds.
Railway minister Lalu Prasad said the three MPs should be subjected to a narco-analysis test to check if they were speaking the truth. “Yeh sab jali hai. (This is all planted),” he said, even as the Opposition demanded the Prime Minister’s head.
source:http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080723/jsp/nation/story_9588492.jsp
