New Delhi, September 27
Sudheendra Kulkarni, a BJP activist and a former aide of senior BJP leader LK Advani, was today put under arrest and sent to judicial custody till October 1 after a city court hearing the 2008 cash-for-vote scam rejected his interim bail. Appearing before the court of Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal today morning, Kulkarni sought relief claiming that he was a “whistleblower” and only intended to “expose the corruption”. However, court dismissed his plea on the grounds that it was without merits and fixed October 1 as the next date for hearing into his plea for regular bail.

Kulkarni is the sixth person to be arrested in the case relating to 22 July 2008 incident when three BJP MPs waved wads of money inside the Lok Sabha claiming that they were paid the money to abstain from voting during the no-confidence motion against the then UPA -I government. MP Amar Singh, two former BJP MPs who were paid money Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahabir Singh Bhagora, Singh’s aide Sanjeev Saxena and a BJP youth activist Suhail Hindustani have earlier been arrested in the case.

Arguing for Kulkarni’s interim bail, while defence counsel Mahipal Singh pointed out that Kulkarni had neither given the money nor taken in the entire episode, Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan opposed it saying that the defence have not shown

any purpose for granting an interim bail and alleged that the whole conspiracy began only when co-accused Sohail Hindustani contacted Kulkarni for the first time.

Public prosecutor further alleged that despite being fully aware that the money has been paid to the three BJP MPs, Kulkarni did not inform the Law Enforcement Agencies at the time of acceptance of illegal gratification by the three MPs.

However, these claims were contested by Kulkarni. "If my purpose was to pocket the money, I would not have let it be shown in Parliament. In fact, it was not a deal of only Rs 1 crore but it was a deal of Rs 9 crores. If I were to take illegal gratification, I could have got Rs 8 crore more," said the defense counsel adding that Kulkarni's intentions could be further gauged from the fact that he informed the top brass of his party regarding it.