Delhi Police register case in cash-for-vote scam

Delhi Police today registered a case and launched an investigation into the cash-for-vote scam involving three MPs following the directions of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Delhi Police today registered a case and launched an investigation into the cash-for-vote scam involving three MPs following the directions of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

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“We have registered a case. The Crime Branch has been entrusted to investigate,” Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

According to police sources, the case was registered at the Crime Branch's Nehru Place police station after the police received documents from the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

P.D.T. Achary, secretary general of the Lok Sabha, also handed over to the police bundles of currency notes the three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs displayed in the house during a trust vote July 22 last year.

The three MPs -- Ashok Argal, Fagan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bagora -- alleged they were given the money by Samajwadi Party leaders to induce them to vote in favour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led government.

A later parliamentary probe absolved Samajwadi Party Amar Singh of any wrongdoing.

The police sources said that since the matter pertained to MPs, they would tread cautiously.

“We will first study the documents and then question people accordingly,” one officer told IANS.

The total cash the three MPs brought to the house that day totalled Rs.30 million.