Gadkari meets jailed party colleagues in Tihar
October 31st, 2011 - 7:37 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari Monday visited the Tihar Jail here to meet two former party MPs and Sudheendra Kulkarni, advisor to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who are accused in the cash-for-votes scam.
Gadkari met former MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora, apart from Kulkarni.
He told reporters that the party will expose those who had acted against the “whistleblowers”.
“When BJP gets a chance, we will expose them and send them to Tihar,” Gadkari said.
He said it was democracy’s tragedy that innocent people were imprisoned and those involved in scandal were roaming free.
Alleging that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had turned into “Congress Bureau of Investigation”, Gadkari rhetorically said it would be better if the agency shifted its office to the Congress headquarters.
Several other BJP leaders, including L.K. Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, too have visited their jailed party colleagues in Tihar.
On July 22, 2008, three BJP MPs — Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahabir Singh 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.
Argal has also been named in a supplementary charge sheet filed by Delhi Police in the case.
The BJP maintains that its MPs had acted as whistleblowers and exposed attempts to buy MPs to win the trust vote.
Another accused in the case, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, has been freed on bail on health grounds.
–Indo-Asain News Service
ps/am/vt
- Cash-for-votes: Kulkarni, two BJP former MPs walk out of Tihar - Nov 17, 2011
- PM, Sonia must apologise for cash-for-votes scam: Gadkari (Lead) - Nov 20, 2011
- Expose beneficiaries of cash-for-vote: Kulkarni - Nov 18, 2011
- Cash-for-votes: Kulkarni, four others walk out of Tihar (Lead) - Nov 17, 2011
- Government protecting corrupt ministers: Advani - Oct 03, 2011
- Cash-for-votes: Order on bail plea of five accused Nov 16 (Lead) - Nov 14, 2011
- Cash-for-vote: Cops furnish CD transcripts to accused - May 26, 2012
- Ahmed Patel was mastermind behind cash-for-vote scam: Gadkari - Nov 18, 2011
- Cash-for-votes: Government indeed tried to buy MPs, says BJP - Nov 17, 2011
- No bail for Advani's former aide, ex BJP MPs - Oct 21, 2011
- Court pulls up cash-for-vote accused for wearing sunglasses - May 28, 2012
- Police response sought on bail plea of Amar Singh's ex-aide (Lead) - Nov 09, 2011
- Advani, Jaitley meet Kulkarni, ex-MPs in Tihar - Sep 28, 2011
- Cash-for-votes: BJP feliciates Kulkarni, other accused - Nov 19, 2011
- Cash-for-votes scam: Bail pleas of Kulkarni, two others, to be heard Oct 13 - Oct 07, 2011
Tags: amar singh, argal, arun jaitley, bihari vajpayee, bjp leaders, central bureau of investigation, congress bureau, currency notes, former prime minister, health grounds, l k advani, Lok Sabha, mahabir, mahavir, manmohan singh, party colleagues, supplementary charge, tihar jail, trust vote, whistleblowers