By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court adjourned, till Wednesday, the hearing of regular and interim pleas for bail by Rajya Sabha member and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, arrested in the 2008 cash-for-votes scandal.
After counsel for Delhi Police sought an adjournment of the matter as its senior counsel arguing the matter was not available, Justice Suresh Kait decided to hear both the applications of Amar Singh at 2.15 p.m. Wednesday.
Justice Ajit Bharihoke, who retired last week, had Oct 12 adjourned the matter till Oct 18 after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) submitted Amar Singh’s medical report.
The court accepted the report but said that it needed time to go through it.
The report of AIIMS, where Amar Singh is admitted, stated that he needs constant medical monitoring.
“He needs to be constantly monitored for renal function, infections and if he is travelling, he should be under the supervision of a nephrologist, a dialysis technician, a nurse and use ambulance/air ambulance for emergency,” said the report by Dr Sanjay Gupta, an additional professor of the AIIMS’ nephrology department.
The report said that Amar Singh has been suffering from several ailments including partial artery disease and respiratory problems besides urinary tract infection (UTI).
“Following discharge, he (Singh) needs to take medicines and follow a routine as directed to prevent any transplant kidney function deterioration,” it said.
It had also recommended that Amar Singh be kept in a highly sanitised and hygienic environment and should avoid crowded places and unsanitised environment to prevent getting infected.
“The antibiotics need to be continued till the urine infection subsides and his renal parameters touch its baseline,” it said.
Delhi Police had, however, opposed Amar Singh’s bail pleas.
After a Delhi court Sep 28 rejected Amar Singh’s interim and regular bail pleas, the 55-year-old continues to be treated at the AIIMS where he was admitted Sep 12.
He had been arrested Sep 6 for his alleged involvement in an attempt to bribe MPs ahead of the July 2008 parliament trust vote.
On July 22, 2008, then Bharatiya Janata Party (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 shoddy probe, Delhi Police July 17 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, Amar Singh, Kulaste and Bhagora were taken into custody.
BJP leader L.K. Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni was the sixth person to be arrested in the case when he appeared before the court Sep 27.
A second supplementary charge sheet Oct 3 made Argal, a BJP MP from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, an accused in the case.
Amar Singh has been charge-sheeted for the offence under section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, with section 120 B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.