Amar Sing Sent to Jail in Cash-For-Votes Scam

Rajya Sabha MP and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh has been arrested and sent to Tihar Jail today. The Tees Hazari court of Special Judge Sangita Dhingra Sehgal rejected his plea of ill-health and his interim bail application in the cash-for-votes scam and remanded him to a 13-day judicial custody.

Amar Singh and two other accused - Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Singh Bhagora - have been arrested and sent to judicial custody till September 19. While Kulaste and Bhagora have been arrested as they are former MPs, Argal is a sitting MP and the permission of the Lok Sabha Speaker is required before he can be chargesheeted and arrested.

In July 2008, the Left pulled out of the UPA government over India's nuclear deal with the US and a trust vote became necessary for then UPA government to prove its majority. Hours before the trust vote on July 22, three BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - walked into the Lok Sabha waving bundles of cash. The Delhi Police says that in the hours before Dr Singh's trust vote, the BJP MPs were given a crore to abstain during the vote. They were promised a total of three crores each after the vote. The money, they said, was sent to them by Mr Singh.

The evidence against Mr Singh who was then a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party includes phone call records, and the fact that a car owned by his company delivered the cash to the MPs at one of their homes. Mr Singh has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act, while the trio of MPs has been charged with accepting bribes.