Cash scam: SC slams Delhi Police for "half-hearted" probe

New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) The Indian Supreme Court on
Friday slammed Delhi Police for its "half-hearted" probe into
the cash-for-vote scam and asked it to take the investigations
to its logical conclusion and submit a final report within
three weeks.
A bench of justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha also
regretted that a middleman of the "cheapest kind" was allowed
to derail Parliamentary proceedings.
"It is a half-hearted attempt by you (Delhi police). You
must take it to the logical conclusion," the bench said after
perusing the preliminary report of Delhi Police which had
claimed that no political leader was involved in the 2008
scam.
Declining to grant 40 days time sought by Delhi Police,
the court asked it to submit a final report within three
weeks.
The apex court regretted that a middleman was allowed to
interfere with Parliamentary proceedings.
"It is so disgusting that a middle man of the cheapest
kind had been allowed to interfere with Parliamentary
proceedings and he had succeeded," the bench observed.
The apex court hoped that Delhi Police will do a fair
and free investigation into the alleged unfortunate episode.
"We are sure that the Delhi Police can investigate in a
fair and free manner. They are as good as any other
investigating agency and will follow the law in letter and
spirit," the bench told Additional Solicitor General Haren
Rawal, appearing for the probe agency.

Delhi Police had Thursday filed before the apex court
its status report on the probe into the scam in which it has
arrested Suhail Hindustani and Sanjeev Saxena and quizzed MPs
Amar Singh, Rewati Raman Singh and Ashok Argal.
The report was submitted to the court in a sealed cover.
Delhi Police had swung into action after the apex court
had on July 15 expressed unhappiness over the "callous"
approach to the probe.
Saxena, an alleged aide of Amar Singh, was the first to
be arrested on July 17 for allegedly trying to bribe Bharatiya
Janata Party MPs during United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government's trust vote on July 22, 2008.
The second arrest was that of Hindustani, who is alleged
to have acted as a liaison between Amar Singh and the BJP MPs,
who were allegedly bribed during the trust vote.
The police had virtually given a clean chit to Congress
and Samajwadi Party on July 21 when it told a trial court here
that none from the two parties had contacted Hindustani, the
alleged "master orchestrator" of the conspiracy to bribe BJP
MPs to vote in favour of Manmohan Singh government in the
trust vote.
Police had also told the court that former Governor
of Bihar state Buta Singh's son Arvinder Singh was approached
by Hindustani for contacting Congress leaders for striking a
deal while allegedly hatching a conspiracy to bribe BJP MPs
during the confidence motion.
Amar Singh, former Samajwadi Party General Secretary and
member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian Parliament,
was interrogated for about three hours by Delhi Police on July
22.
The police had also interrogated Samajwadi Party MP
Rewati Raman Singh on July 25 and BJP MP Ashok Argal on July
26 in connection with the scam.