New Delhi
July 25, 2008
To
The Honourable Speaker
Lok Sabha
New Delhi
Subject: Complaint against Shri Reoti Raman Singh, Member of Parliament (LokSabha); Shri Amar Singh, General Secretary of the Samajwadi Party; and ShriAhmed Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress president for attempting tobribe three Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) — Shri Ashok Argal (Morena,Madhya Pradesh), Shri Mahavir Baghora (Salumbar, Rajasthan) and Shri FagganSingh Kulaste (Mandla, Madhya Pradesh) — in the ‘Cash-for-Votes’ scandalon July 22, 2008
Honourable Sir,
1: You may kindly recall that on July 22, 2008 we had personally met you in yourchamber and recounted the scandalous manner in which we were sought to be bribedby leaders of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party to help the UPA Government byrefraining from voting against the Confidence Motion. Pursuant to our oralcomplaint made in your chamber on 22 July, you had promised on the floor of theHouse to order investigation and to take appropriate action against all thoseresponsible. In response to your letter dated 23 July 2008 received late night,we are hereby giving a written complaint.
The detailed facts are as follows:
2: The UPA Government lost its majority on 9 July 2008 when the Left partieswithdrew support to it. This led to Respected Rashtrapatiji asking the PrimeMinister to seek the trust of the House in a special session of the Lok Sabha on21-22 July.
Even though the Samajwadi Party had pledged its support to the UPA Government on9 July, it was obvious from the numerical representation of various parties inthe House that the UPA Government was in no position to prove its majoritywithout engineering defections from the non-UPA ranks. Leaders of the Congressand the Samajwadi Party started boasting about large-scale defections from non-UPAparties. Some sections of the media even published names of non-UPA MPs who weregoing to either vote for the Government or abstain from voting. On 14 July, ShriA.B. Bardhan, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India alleged at apublic rally in New Delhi that the Congress-led UPA was indulging inhorse-trading and mentioned an ongoing rate of Rs 25 crore per MP. The entirenation was shocked to hear this.
On 20 July Shri Amar Singh announced at a press conference in New Delhi that BJPMP, Shri Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, would support the Government in the trustvote. With Shri Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh by his side at the widely coveredpress conference, Shri Amar Singh also claimed that more non-UPA MPs woulddefect soon. "We have opened our first card," he stated. "When we openour other cards on 22 July, many will be taken aback."
3: Apart from MPs from other non-UPA parties and independent MPs, our names alsowere being mentioned in the list of "soft targets" and that we werevulnerable. Many power-brokers through their intermediaries contacted us but wedid not take their approaches seriously. When we were approached directly, wedecided to expose the masterminds of the cash-for-votes racket.
4: We contacted CNN-IBN news channel, which deputed its correspondent ShriSiddharth Gautam to record the whistle-blowing operation and to expose theUPA’s unethical plot to convert its minority Government into majorityGovernment by stooping to any levels.
5: In the first instance, on July 21, one of the intermediaries took us toMeridian Hotel where he said a senior Congress leader would meet us and give usmoney for abstaining in the trust vote. This meeting, however, did notmaterialize.
6: Late in the evening on July 21, we received a message from Shri Reoti RamanSingh, a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party and its MP, that he would meet usat the residence of Shri Ashok Argal at 4 Ferozshah Road. He came aftermidnight. He promised us that our interests would be taken care of and that weshould accompany him to meet Shri Amar Singh. He further maintained that weshould have a face to face meeting with Shri Amar Singh and that all issuesincluding the amount payable to us would be settled by him. The entire meetingand conversation was recorded by the CNN-IBN team, which had bugged the roomwith hidden cameras.
7: The next morning, on July 22, two of us — namely, Shri Ashok Argal and ShriFagan Singh Kulaste — were taken for the meeting with Shri Amar Singh at hisresidence at 27 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi. We went in car no. DL-7S-1882, a whiteMaruti Zen. Our car was followed by CNN-IBN’s car with Shri Sidharth Gautam.Our visit to Shri Amar Singh’s house and back was video recorded by the CNN-IBNreporter.
8: We met Shri Amar Singh at his residence. He boasted that although he hadalready "managed" the requisite number, still since Shri Reoti Raman Singhhad met us and arranged the meeting, he would pay Rs. 3 crore each forabstaining from voting on July 22. We mentioned that we have one more MP willingto abstain. He agreed to pay the same amount to the third MP. Thereafter, hespoke to Shri Ahmed Patel on phone and said, "I have three more Kamals(Lotuses) here." He also made us speak to Shri Ahmed Patel, who gave hisconsent to the arrangement.
Shri Amar Singh offered to pay us an initial token amount of Rs. one crore andasked us to carry it with us. We declined, saying it was unsafe with journalistsstanding outside his house. Shri Amar Singh promised to send the amount with hisassistant, Shri Sanjeev Saxena, within 15 minutes.
9: As per Shri Amar Singh’s promise, his assistant, who indeed identifiedhimself as Shri Sanjeev Saxena, arrived at 4 Ferozshah Road soon after ourreaching there. He and his colleague came in a white Gypsy car no. DL-2C-S-8562,which was noted down by our staff. He was led into the same drawing room, whichhad already been bugged with hidden cameras. Shri Saxena and one more personaccompanying him had carried the money in a bag and emptied its contents on atable in front of the chairs on which we were sitting. The amount of Rs. 1 crorewas in ten bundles of Rs. 10 lakhs each, most of it in currency notes of Rs.1000.
10: Shri Saxena asked for the identification of the third MP, whom Shri AshokArgal introduced as Shri Mahavir Baghora. Shri Saxena kept trying to connectShri Amar Singh’s telephone number, which was repeatedly coming busy. Finally,he got all three of us to speak to Shri Amar Singh. After we three spoke to ShriAmar Singh, Shri Saxena gave the money to us on behalf of Shri Amar Singh. Thismoney of Rs. one crore was the initial token amount and the balance of Rs. 8crore was promised to be paid later. This entire episode was also recorded bythe CNN-IBN team.
11: Besides Shri Sidharth Gautam, three more persons from the CNN-IBN team werepresent in Shri Argal’s house. Also present in the house was one of our Partycolleagues.
12: After Shri Sanjeev Saxena’s departure, the CNN-IBN team rearranged thebundles on the table and captured on camera the serial numbers of the first andthe last currency notes in each of the ten bundles.
13: Thereafter, Shri Siddharth Gautam conducted an elaborate interview with usin the same room, with the amount of Rs. 1 crore placed in front us on thetable. The interview was recorded on a regular camera and included a fullnarration of the entire sequence of two days.
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Shri Siddharth Gautam then recorded an introduction for a promo to theinvestigative report which, among other things, said, "For the first time inthe history of Indian Parliament, the scandal of horse-trading has been capturedon camera by the investigative team of CNN-IBN."
14: The CNN-IBN team completed their recordings, removed their bugging equipmentfrom the room and left the house of Shri Ashok Argal at around noon on July 22.Before departing, the team assured us that the programme, along with the promo,would be telecast soon.
15: At around 4.30 pm, we walked up to the table of the Secretary General, infront of the Speaker’s Chair, took out the money from the bags and displayedit before all the Honourable Members as tell-tale proof of the "cash forvotes" scandal. We also wanted to establish before Parliament and the nationthe level to which the UPA had stooped to procure a majority which they did nothave. In doing so, we were motivated by the desire to save democracy frompernicious influence of money power.
16: The House was adjourned and we were called to your Chamber. We narrated allthe events to your Honourable Self in the presence of leaders of variouspolitical parties. The money given by Shri Amar Singh was deposited in youroffice against receipt.
17: In view of the gravity of the bribery scandal and blatant inducement toMembers of Parliament to defy their party whips, illegally help the Governmentto cobble a majority, and thereby subvert Constitutional and parliamentarynorms, we would request you to take prompt and the most stringent action againstthe wrong-doers to uphold the dignity of democracy.
18: This attempt to subvert the functioning of Parliament by inducements andbribery, especially in a session devoted to the confidence motion, besides beinga matter of violation of ethics is also a breach of privilege. We reserve ourright to initiate criminal law action in the matter.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
Ashok Argal
(Member of the Lok Sabha from Morena, Madhya Pradesh)
Mahavir Baghora
(Member of the Lok Sabha from Salumbar, Rajasthan)
Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste
(Member of the Lok Sabha from Mandla, Madhya Pradesh)
