M A I N   N E W S

Cash-for-Votes
Clean chit for Amar, Ahmad?
Panel to discuss, adopt draft report on Oct 17
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 6
The Lok Sabha panel probing cash-for-vote scam that rocked Parliament on July 22 today met amid strong speculation that Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and Congress leader Ahmad Patel had been given a clean chit in the matter. The panel in its draft report is further learnt to have suggested handing over investigations in the case to the CBI.

While a section of the media today claimed that the panel had exonerated Amar and Patel for lack of evidence in the case, probe panel chief V. Kishore Chandra Deo rubbished these reports as “the figment of people’s imagination.” Speaking to The Tribune today, Deo said he could only condemn in the highest terms such attempts to exert pressure on the panel from outside.

“The media never behaved like this earlier. But I am not going to be carried away by all this speculation. I want to distance myself from this speculation,” said Deo, adding that there was no consensus yet on whether to hand over investigations in the matter to an external agency.

The panel was in fact supposed to discuss the draft report today and arrive on some consensus, but that did not happen as most members (with the exception of CPM’s Mohd Salim who was absent) sought more time to go through the report.

“As per rules, we don’t send copies of draft reports of the committees to members’ constituencies. We send them to their Delhi addresses. Many members today said they had not had the time to study the report. We therefore did not discuss anything today,” Deo said. The panel will now reassemble on October 17 for discussion and adoption of the draft report.

Sources in the Lok Sabha secretariat added that the draft report was not yet final and nothing could be said about who had been given a clean chit and who had been nailed. “The draft report may well be revised. Nothing is final as no discussions on nuances has taken place," sources said, as unconfirmed reports said the panel had recommended an inquiry against SP leader Reoti Raman Singh, Sanjeev Saxena and Suhail Hindustani, for their role in the incident that shamed India’s Parliament.