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Delhi Police won’t oppose Kulkarni bail
Former BJP ideologue Sudheendra Kulkarni along with former MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahaveer Singh Bhagora, arrested in the cash for vote scam are likely to be released on bail on Wednesday.
The Delhi Police on Monday decided not to oppose their bail petitions saying the probe into the case was over following which the High Court reserved the pronouncement of judgement for November 16. “The court may consider granting bail to all the six accused who have filed their bail applications in the court,” said the prosecuting agency in their reply to the court notice. The police also said it had no objection to the anticipatory bail application of sitting MP Ashok Argal.
The ‘no-objection’ from the city police came as a big surprise for the defence counsels who had begun their argument on the bail petition. The standing counsel for Delhi Police Pawan Sharma, in the meantime, intervened and informed Justice ML Mehta, who was hearing the case, that the prosecuting agency had no objection to their bail. “Ashok Argal has already joined the investigation on July 25 this year and moreover, the final report has also been filed. The bail applications could be considered,” Sharma said.
The court was hearing the applications of five jailed accused — Kulkarni, Kulaste, Bhagora, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh’s former aide Sanjeev Saxena and alleged BJP activist Suhail Hindustani. All these accused were denied bail by the trial court.
Justice Mehta, after hearing arguments for nearly two hours on behalf of the six accused, reserved his orders for November 16. The court would hear the anticipatory bail plea of Samajwadi Party leader Rewati Raman Singh, who has been summoned as an accused by the trial judge recently today.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh appearing for Kulkarni cited the statement of the Editor-in-Chief of the news channel and said that none of the witnesses had testified that illegal gratifications were paid. He said Kulkarni was not involved in any criminal act and the sting was conducted to expose the corruption which ‘pinched’ his heart. “The sting operation was conducted to expose the horse trading and not to get illegal gratification. Instead of making them witnesses, the whistleblowers are made accused in the case, he added.
Opposing the plea of police that BJP MPs did not inform police about the incident, the defence lawyer said, “Sting cannot be conducted if police is informed in advance and, moreover, it was quite natural for MPs to inform the Lok Sabha Speaker about it. In any case, nothing had stopped the police from probing the case as the whole nation watched the incident live on TV.” The audio-video tapes of the sting have been found to be genuine and this has been proved in forensic tests, he said.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Kulaste and Bhagora, said, “If the BJP MPs along with the journalists of a news channel planned the sting to expose the scam, then why are the MPs being made accused and scribes being made witnesses?” Notably, Kulkarni was arrested on September 27 while Bhagora and Kulaste are in jail since September 6.
