The Hindu : Front Page : UPA fabricating evidence, says BJP

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Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
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UPA fabricating evidence, says BJP

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arun Jaitley on Monday charged United Progressive Alliance leaders with “fabricating evidence” in the cash-for-votes case.

He also said that the reason why the alleged bribe-giver in the case was not handed over to the police straight away was that the BJP wanted to expose to the people “corruption” during the trust motion.

Mr. Jaitley’s press conference here on Monday followed that of the UPA leaders – Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad, Amar Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan – who showed their own “tapes” on the alleged scandal.

Their tape showed the alleged bribe-giver, Sanjeev Saxena, emerging from a bungalow allotted to a BJP MP by the government. Mr. Jaitley’s explanation that the footage was probably shot after July 22 – as in the case of the Uma Bharti tape shown to reporters on Saturday – did not throw light on why Mr. Saxena was visiting BJP MPs after they had given a complaint petition against him to the Speaker.

When Mr. Jaitley was asked to confirm whether a posse of Madhya Pradesh police was indeed posted outside the residence of Ashok Argal, the MP’s house where the Rs. 1 crore was allegedly delivered hours before the voting on the trust motion, he said that may well be. Why was not the bribe-giver handed over to the police then and there? Mr. Jaitley said the BJP wanted to “show the people” the kind of money used to help the government get through the trust motion.

Mr. Jaitley said Mr. Saxena was Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh’s aide. He had given Mr. Singh’s address as his workplace address in Delhi University admission forms for his son. (Mr. Amar Singh has separately stated that Mr. Saxena was working with him till a day or two before the trust vote when SP Rajya Sabha MP Shahid Siddiqui, “left the party” and took Mr. Saxena along with him). Ministers in the UPA government were now “fabricating evidence,” an action that “might become a matter of criminal law,” Mr. Jaitley warned.

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