New Delhi:
Barely hours after former BJP advisor Sudheendra Kulkarni walked out of Tihar Jail last evening, he reportedly got a call from senior party leader LK Advani who, sources say, congratulated him and asked him to take his fight to expose the wrongdoers in the cash-for-votes scam to its logical and legal end. Interestingly, the veteran leader is also said to have asked Mr Kulkarni to join him during the last leg of his Jan Chetna Yatra.
Mr Kulkarni and two former BJP MPs Mahavir Singh Bhagora and Faggan Singh Kulaste were released from jail yesterday. They were granted bail in the cash-for-votes case by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.
"Our stand has been vindicated," Mr Kulkarni told reporters outside Tihar, adding, "The whole truth is not out as yet. The ultimate beneficiary is the government, that has to be exposed."
Mr Kulkarni has been accused by the Delhi Police of masterminding a conspiracy in July 2008 which saw three BJP MPs putting themselves on the market ahead of a trust vote in Parliament. Mr Bhagora, Mr Kulaste and Ashok Argal were then allegedly paid one crore in cash, an advance for a nine-crore deal, by middlemen acting on behalf of Amar Singh, who was then with the Samajwadi Party. The MPs walked into Parliament ahead of the trust vote brandishing wads of notes. Mr Kulkarni has said that he wanted to expose the UPA government's willingness to buy votes to remain in power. He was arrested on September 27.
Emboldened by the release of Mr Kulkarni as well as the two former BJP MPs, Mr Advani and the BJP at large would be able to corner the Congress-led UPA government over the cash-for-votes scam. The saffron party maintains that the Congress tried to bribe MPs during the trust vote in 2008 and Sudheendra Kulkarni as well as the three BJP MPs had only tried to expose this.
Sanjeev Saxena, former aide to politician Amar Singh, and Sohail Hindustani, who claims to have served as a BJP youth activist, were also released from prison yesterday. Mr Argal has got anticipatory bail.
Amar Singh was granted bail earlier for medical reasons. He has denied the charges against him. The Delhi Police has not said on whose behalf he allegedly acted. The Opposition says that since the PM was the main beneficiary of the conspiracy, he should explain the chain of events that led to the cash-for-votes scam.
The Delhi High Court judge said on Wednesday that he could not find evidence that the trio of BJP MPs had accepted bribes. His comments suggested that he accepts they served as "whistle-blowers."
The BJP has been protesting against the fact that "whistle-blowers" have been punished. Senior leader LK Advani has said he was aware of Mr Kulkarni's plan, and was kept in the loop as the three MPs received the cash as a bribe. He had dared the government to arrest him as well.