Date:05/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/05/stories/2008080558140100.htm

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Parliamentary panel views tapes

Special Correspondent

MPs to be questioned at next meeting

Sanjeev Saxena also to be interrogated
Two more discs to be examined

NEW DELHI: The seven-member Kishore Chandra Deo parliamentary committee set up by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to establish facts related to the alleged cash-for-votes scandal, on Monday viewed video footage and listened to audio-tapes on the incident.

The Lok Sabha secretariat has been asked to provide each member a copy of the transcript of the video and audio tapes so that they can be studied in detail, Mr. Chandra Deo said.

At the next meeting scheduled for August 7, the three Bharatiya Janata Party MPs who gave a complaint to the Speaker that money was offered to them as a bribe to cross-vote on the trust motion in defiance of the party whip, would be questioned by the committee.

Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora will also make a detailed submission then.

Some members told The Hindu that the committee would later interrogate Sanjeev Saxena, the man who allegedly delivered Rs. 1 crore at Mr. Argal’s official residence on July 22. Representatives of the television channel CNN-IBN involved in shooting the footage with a hidden camera would also be asked to appear before the committee. It is expected to seek an extension beyond August 11, by which it was asked to complete its work.

Members who viewed the tapes confirmed that the video footage shows Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh talking to the BJP MPs while offering to go with them to the residence of SP general secretary Amar Singh. However, there is no footage of Mr. Amar Singh.

The committee’s task has become complicated as two more compact video discs have surfaced. The discs — one by the expelled BJP leader Uma Bharti and the other, distributed to reporters here by United Progressive Alliance leaders Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan and Amar Singh — have been sent to the Speaker’s office. “We will have to view all the related tapes,” one member said.

Another said the “video-footage was quite okay but the audio tapes were of poor quality.” It shows Mr. Saxena making a telephone call.

According to another member, police should have been called in. “It has come to our notice that a posse of policemen from Madhya Pradesh was posted outside Mr. Argal’s residence. Why was the alleged bribe-giver not immediately handed over to the police? Let Mr. Argal come before the committee and explain.” It was also “confirmed” by a member that the bundles of currency totalling Rs. 1 crore were withdrawn from different banks, making the task of tracing the money trail more difficult.

Yet another member confirmed that the number plate of the car, which allegedly brought Mr. Saxena to Mr. Argal’s residence, “cannot be seen in the footage.”