2008 cash scam: Amar Singh, Sudheendra Kulkarni discharged

NEW DELHI: Former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, L K Advani's ex-aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and two BJP MPs along with two others today got a huge relief with a Delhi court discharging them in the 2008 cash-for-vote case.

Besides Amar Singh and Kulkarni, Special Judge Narottam Kaushal also discharged BJP MPs Ashok Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste, former BJP MP Mahabir Singh Bhagora and BJP activist Sohail Hindustani of the charges of criminal conspiracy under IPC and the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court, however, ordered framing of charges against Amar Singh's former aide Sanjeev Saxena under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly abeting the crime.

The Delhi police, in its first charge sheet filed in August 2011, had accused Amar Singh and Kulkarni of "conspiring" and "masterminding" the cash-for-vote scam to bribe some MPs ahead of a confidence vote in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008.