The Hindu

NEW DELHI, Dec 16: The Kishore Chandra Deo parliamentary committee has given a clean chit to Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh and Congress MP Ahmed Patel in the “cash for votes” scam.

It, however, recommended further investigation by appropriate investigative agencies into the role of Sudheendra Kulkarni (political aide of L.K. Advani), Sohail Hindustani (Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha activist), and Sanjeev Saxena (aide of Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh), who handed over bundles of currency notes to three BJP MPs ahead of the trust vote in Parliament on July 22.

No direct evidence

While damning Mr. Saxena as a “bribe-giver wittingly or unwittingly,” the report said the source of the money could not be established. Thus, Mr. Amar Singh has been let off the hook for there was “no direct evidence against him.” But his party MP Rewati Raman Singh has been criticised by the panel for allowing himself to get involved in “such shenanigans.”

Mr. Raman Singh’s role seemed “limited to persuading the members [BJP MPs] to meet Mr. Amar Singh.” As for the political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, Ahmad Patel, the committee said there was “not an iota of evidence [against him] either in the tapes or in the depositions made by witnesses who appeared before committee.”

The panel submitted the report to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on November 12. The 467-page report with unedited transcriptions of audio-video tapes and depositions of witnesses was tabled in the House on Monday. The report carries three dissenting notes from V.K. Malhotra (BJP), Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) and Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party)