Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Monday stayed till Nov 15 a trial court’s summons to Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh in the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal in parliament. The trial court had asked the Lok Sabha member to appear before it Nov 3.

“Proceedings are stayed before the trial court till next date of hearing Nov 15,” Justice Suresh Kait said.

The court while issuing notice to Delhi Police asked them to submit the audio-video CDs of a sting operation in which Rewati Raman Singh was allegedly seen talking to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs.

The court said that if any person was seen in the video it did not mean that he was a conspirator.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the MP, said the court must quash the order of the trial court which issued summons to his client asking him to appear Nov 3.

“It is not as if Delhi Police have not yet examined Rewati Raman Singh, nor anything new has come on records. No further material has come on record under which the court issued summons,” said Rohatgi.

The special court overruled the findings of the Delhi Police, which had given a clean chit to Rewati Raman Singh in the case.

“In my considerate view there is sufficient material on record to form an opinion that Rewati Raman was part of the alleged criminal conspiracy,” the special court said earlier.

On July 22, 2008, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora and Ashok Argal waved wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha ahead of a trust vote, alleging they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.

“The material placed on record and the signed statement of three MPs are sufficient to show that Rewati Raman Singh was the person who led the three MPs and arranged a meeting with (Rajya Sabha MP) Amar Singh promising that their interests would be taken care of,” said Delhi Police counsel Pawan Sharma.

Sharma said that quashing the trial court’s summons would be like killing an unborn child, so the petition was liable to be dismissed.

After a Supreme Court rap for shoddy probe, Delhi Police July 17 made their first arrest in the case, taking Amar Singh’s secretary Sanjeev Saxena into custody.

Three days later, middleman Suhail Hindustani was arrested and Sep 6 Kulaste and Bhagora, who are no longer MPs, were taken into custody.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, the media advisor to Atal Behari Vajpayee when he was the prime minister, was the sixth accused to be arrested in the case when he appeared before the court Sep 27.

A second supplementary charge sheet filed Oct 3 made Argal, a BJP MP from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, an accused in the case.