The Delhi High Court Thursday set aside 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. But allowing Singh’s plea to quash the trial court order, Justice Suresh Kait said: “Petition is allowed and the trial court order is set aside.”
Earlier, the high court had issued notice to the Delhi Police and asked them to submit the audio-video CDs of a sting operation in which Singh was allegedly seen talking to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs.
The court said if any person was seen in the video, it did not mean that he was a conspirator.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SP 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 (the) 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,” Rohatgi said.
On July 22, 2008, 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.
After a Supreme Court rap for a shoddy probe, Delhi Police July 17, this year, 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 Bihari 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 chargesheet filed Oct 3 made Argal, a BJP MP from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, an accused in the case. However, all the accused are already out on bail.
