INDIAN police yesterday arrested a high-profile lawmaker on charges alleging he bribed MPs to support the government in a crucial confidence vote three years ago.
The arrest of Amar Singh in the so-called “cash-for-votes” case brought immediate demands by opposition leaders for the scandal-tainted Congress government to say who in the party was behind the alleged bribery.
“The beneficiary of the cash-for-vote scam was the government,” said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, demanding a deeper probe into the case.
“It is time for Amar Singh to say on whose behalf he acted.”
Singh, 55, is accused of bribing three opposition members of parliament to back the government in the confidence vote that was sparked by heated opposition to a nuclear pact with the US.
The politician from Uttar Pradesh has denied the allegations.
He was sent to Delhi’s Tihar jail where two former government ministers, senior government officials and top corporate executives have been imprisoned on graft accusations.
At the time of the 2008 confidence vote, Singh was leader of a socialist party allied to the government. He currently sits in the upper house of parliament.
At a hearing after his arrest, Singh requested bail on the grounds that he recently underwent a kidney transplant and would be at risk of infection in jail.
“I am really not well,” Singh told the court.
The request was denied.
A police charge-sheet alleged that “sufficient evidence” had come to light that Singh “hatched a criminal conspiracy” to deliver cash to the lawmakers “as illegal gratification” for their votes.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s government narrowly survived the confidence vote. Had he lost, the world’s largest democracy would have been pitched into early elections.
The vote has long been subject to corruption claims. At the time, opposition MPs debating in parliament waved wads of money which they claimed the government was using to try to bribe them.
Congress was swept back to power in general elections a year after the confidence vote but its second term has been marred by the corruption scandals which have largely derailed its legislative agenda.
The cash-for-votes allegations surfaced again in March when WikiLeaks made public a US diplomatic cable quoting a US embassy employee as saying he saw piles of money being readied to bribe Indian MPs ahead of the confidence vote.
Prime Minister Dr Singh, who is no relation to Amar Singh, has denied that any government or Congress party member was involved in buying votes.
