New Delhi:
Home Minister P Chidambaram may have said in Parliament that the cash-for-votes scandal was being probed by the Delhi Police, but in over 30 months of investigation, the three BJP MPs who brought wads of notes to Parliament to show that an attempt had been made to buy them have still not been questioned. (
Read: Cash-for-votes scam probe to be completed soon, says Chidambaram)
Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Ashok Argal, one of the MPs, has said that he has not been contacted by any probe agency or the police so far. Mr Argal also denied there was any entrapment, and said he would be willing to be investigated again.
"I have not been contacted by any probe agency. The police have not tried to contact me," said Mr Argal.
Not just Mr Argal, but former BJP MP Mahveer Bhagora, who was among the three MPs who brought cash into Parliament, also says he has not been questioned so far by the police or any other agency.
"Two to three people had contacted our party leader Sri Ashok Argal to support the government. In return they promised a huge sum. When we came to know about the conspiracy, we told our party leaders. Our leaders advised us to take the money and and come to the House, where the entire matter would be disclosed," said Mr Bhagora.
He also insists that a Samajwadi Party leader contacted Mr Argal and offered them a huge amount of money. "At first an MP from the Samajwadi Party approached us, then two more people also approached us."
The fact that the key players in the cash-for-votes scandal have not been questioned, in over 30 months of investigations, raises questions on the seriousness of the government. In fact, Arun Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, accused Home Minister Chidambaram of a cover-up when he announced that a probe is on.
On July 22 2008, Dr Manmohan Singh won the vote of confidence by a slim margin. The Left had quit the government over India's nuclear deal with the US. In the days leading upto the vote, there were hectic political negotiations to win new friends and influence people.
The cash-for-votes scam erupted hours before the vote of confidence took place when three BJP MPs walked into the Lok Sabha with cash that they said added upto three crore rupees. They claimed that that they had been offered this money to vote for the nuclear deal and had planned a sting operation to prove this.
A Lok Sabha committee, headed by Congress MP KC Deo, was set up to examine their allegations, but found that there was no evidence of the BJP's claims.