New Delhi: An oral plea by a witness to cancel the bail of Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh, an accused in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam case, allegedly because he was being threatened on behalf of the parliamentarian, was rejected on Tuesday by a Delhi court.
Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal dismissed the oral plea of prosecution witness Hasmat Ali, saying that he should file a formal application for the same.
"Please cancel the bail of the person on whose behalf I am being threatened," Ali told the court. On being asked by one of the defence counsel as to who he was referring to, he named Singh.
Ali also filed a formal application for police protection alleging that he is facing threat to his life and is being threatened even on phone.
The judge, however, told Ali that the court does not have the power to hear his plea for grant of protection and asked him to approach the Member Secretary of Delhi State Legal Services Authority.
Earlier also in another court, Ali had accused Singh of getting him kidnapped on September 25, 2008, the day he was to make his deposition before the Parliamentary inquiry committee probing the scam, which involved alleged bribing of MPs for voting in favour of the government in 2008.
The court fixed January 17 to begin hearing arguments on framing of charge in the case.
The court also supplied to all the accused copies of additional charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in the case.
The additional charge sheet was filed in pursuance of court`s October 15 order to the police to "investigate (the matter) from all angles" and trace the source of money in the case.
The court`s order had come on a plea by BJP`s Rajya Sabha MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, an accused in the case, seeking further probe in the matter to trace the source of money and the beneficiaries of the alleged deal to pay the BJP`s "vulnerable" MPs to vote in favour of the UPA government.
He had also sought probe into the whereabouts of an unidentified person, who had allegedly carried the currency notes delivered to the politicians.
The police has said in the charge sheet that it did not find any "clue" about the money trail and the unidentified man also could not be traced.
In the fresh charge sheet, the police gave details of its further probe during which Amar Singh was again quizzed and the editor-in-chief and the reporter of a TV news channel, which conducted the sting operation, too joined the probe.
On July 22, 2008, some BJP MPs had waved wads of currency notes on the floor of Lok Sabha during the trust vote faced by the UPA-I government, claiming they were given the cash to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.
Samajwadi Party`s former general secretary Amar Singh, BJP leader L K Advani`s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, BJP MP Argal, Kulaste, ex-party MP Mahabir Singh Bhagora along with Amar Singh`s former aide Sanjeev Saxena and alleged BJP activist Suhail Hindustani are accused in the case.
PTI
