By IANS,
New Delhi : Sanjeev Saxena, arrested in the 2008 cash-for-votes scam, has told police that the former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had provided him money to bribe MPs in 2008, sources said. Amar Singh denied that Saxena was his aide.
Saxena – a former private secretary of Amar Singh – was Monday brought before a Delhi court, which sent him to 3-day police custody.
However, Amar Singh told reporters Saxena wasn’t his employee at all.
“He works for (Bharatiya Janata Party leader) Arun Jaitley,” he said.
Saxena, who said he was working as Amar Singh’s secretary for three years, is understood to have told the police that the leader’s driver Sanjay had gone along with him to deliver the money – a fact confirmed by the two BJP MPs Fagan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora.
The two were among the three MPs who had alleged they had been paid to abstain from the trust vote sought by the Manmohan Singh government after the Left withdrew support over the Indo-Us nuclear deal.
The MPs have told police that Amar Singh had introduced Saxena as his secretary.
The case, which has been activised by the recent intervention of the Supreme Court, is turning into a into a political slug-fest with the BJP and Congress trading charges.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad Monday called for a thorough probe into the case
However, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters that it was “inappropriate to make any comments as the investigations are on”.
Police will widen the probe to find out whether the the entire sum of Rs.1 crore was provided by Amar Singh or was there anyone else behind the corruption saga.
Police are trying to recover Saxena’s phone which was used to make all the calls at that time, the sources said. They are also looking for Sanjay, the driver.
Saxena was caught on camera paying BJP MPs Kulaste, Bhagora and Ashok Argal bribes ahead of the confidence vote.
Kulaste, Argal and Bhagora had waved several bundles of notes inside the Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008 alleging that they were offered Rs.1 crore to abstain.
A seven-member parliamentary committee was set up soon after the cash-for-votes scam. The committee had directed the Delhi Police to investigate the case.