Daijiworld Media Network

New Delhi, Jul 25: Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday July 24 defended his former general secretary Amar Singh and senior party leader Rewati Raman Singh, who are under the CBI scanner in connection with the 2008 cash-for-vote scam, stating that they had only 'helped' the Congress and not bribed anyone.

Accusing Congress of plotting against Amar Singh and Rewati, Mulayam said that though his party had helped Congress during the 2008 UPA trust vote, it had not asked for any favours in return.

He also said that it was an injustice to the two leaders to be questioned by the CBI

"It is an injustice being meted out to Amar Singh...  a conspiracy to trouble Rewati Raman Singh and Amar Singh. He had helped the Congress during the 2008 confidence vote when the Samajwadi Party voted in favour of the UPA government. And now he is being targeted and questioned," Yadav told reporters.

He claimed that his party had helped the Congress only by voting in its favour and had nothing to do with the cash-for-vote scam. He pointed out that if they had helped in such ways, Amar Singh would have been given cabinet berth, which he wasn't. He also reiterated that no money had changed hands.

He also did a U-turn on the Congress and alleged that it had been exploiting Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. Comparing it to the previous NDA government, he said the latter was better as it had not exploited UP Muslims during its reign.

Meanwhile, the CBI said that Amar Singh had lied about not having any ties with Sanjeev Saxena, who was earlier arrested in the scam and was known to be Amar Singh's former aide. CBI said that it had a copy of a letter by Amar Singh in which he had mentioned Saxena as his secretary.

While Amar Singh has already been questioned by the CBI, Rewati's turn will be on Monday July 25.