3 others linked to cash-for-vote: Speaker

A day after a parliamentary panel gave a clean chit to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Congress leader Ahmad Patel on allegations they had sought to buy votes ahead of the July 22 trust vote in parliament.

A day after a parliamentary panel gave a clean chit to Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Congress leader Ahmad Patel on allegations they had sought to buy votes ahead of the July 22 trust vote in parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Tuesday recommended that the role of three others linked to the scam be probed.

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Chatterjee recommended a probe into the role of Sanjeev Saxena, said to be a former aide of Amar Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni, believed to be a close aide of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani, and Suhel Hindustani, who is alleged to have facilitated the sting, be probed further by the home ministry.

"The committee has, however, found the evidence given before the committee by three persons involved in this episode as unconvincing and the committee has suggested that their role in the matter needs to be investigated by investigating agencies," Chatterjee said.

"I am accordingly referring the matter pertaining to the said three persons to the Hon'be minister of home affairs for appropriate action in the light of the recommendations of the committee," Chatterjee noted in the Lok Sabha.

Three BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - had stunned the nation by brandishing wads of cash in the Lok Sabha shortly before the Manmohan Singh government was to face the trust vote on July 22 evening. The BJP MPs alleged they were given Rs 30 million each to abstain during the trust vote.

The speaker's recommendations Tuesday come a day after the seven-member committee headed by V Krishna Chandra S Deo formed to probe the scam tabled its report in parliament on Monday.

“The committee after taking into account their findings and conclusions in the matter relating to the roles of Sanjeev Saxena, Sudheendra Kulkarni and Suhel Hindustani recommend that the matter be probed further by an appropriate agency,” the report said.