BJP slams cash-for-votes case probe

BJP Tuesday questioned the investigations into the 2008 cash-for-votes case saying while no action has been taken against those who benefited in the scam, the ones who exposed it are behind bars.

"No action has been taken against those who benefited from the scam. Those who were behind the scam, their role has not been investigated," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in New Delhi.

He said it was unfortunate that those who "exposed" the scam are behind bars "even on Diwali".

Former BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora along with former aide of party leader L K Advani Sudheendra Kulkarni are in judicial custody while expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has been granted bail on health grounds.

"The entire country is agitated," Prasad said ahead of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj's meeting with the three in Tihar Jail.

The party maintains that they had acted as whistle blowers and exposed attempts to bribe MPs to win the July 22, 2008 trust vote.

On the last day of the recently concluded Monsoon session of Parliament, Advani had said that if the two MPs and Kulkarni are guilty then he is even more guilty as he --in his capacity as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha -- had allowed them to go ahead with the sting operation.

Advani has also said that these arrests had prompted him to launch his yatra.