New Delhi:
Delhi Police will file an additional chargesheet in the cash-for-votes scam today as the four-week deadline given by the Supreme Court to track the source of the money ends.
So far, the police has scanned 10 banks in Delhi, Gurgaon and Karnataka and examined each transaction above 10 lakhs in these banks. Sources have told NDTV that in its second chargesheet, the Delhi Police says the source of the money cannot be traced as all transactions are accounted for.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, former BJP advisor, was arrested on Tuesday in this case. Mr Kulkarni said he acted as a whistle-blower and a political activist in 2008 when he persuaded three BJP MPs to put themselves on the political market ahead of a trust vote for Dr Manmohan Singh.
The MPs were caught on hidden camera receiving money from middlemen who allegedly represented politician Amar Singh. The MPs then walked into the Lok Sabha hours ahead of the trust vote waving the money- one crore in cash -that they said they had been paid to abstain during the vote. Dr Singh survived the vote.
Amar Singh was arrested earlier this month under the Prevention of Corruption Act but has been granted bail for medical reasons.
Two of the three BJP MPs who were paid money in 2008 are in jail. The third is still serving his term as MP so the Speaker of the Lok Sabha has to sanction action against him. In Parliament a few weeks ago, Mr Advani in a dramatic episode dared the government to jail him too. He said that as Leader of the Opposition in 2008, he was aware of his party's plans to entrap the government ahead of the trust vote on July 22, 2008.
The Delhi Police has so far not disclosed the source of the money paid to the BJP MPs. It has also not elaborated on whose behalf Amar Singh may have been acting by bribing BJP MPs to support the government. The BJP has repeatedly said that because Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi were the intended beneficiaries of Amar Singh's actions, they should explain the cash-for-votes scam.