New Delhi (PTI): The Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday requested Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to get the cash-for-abstention allegations from BJP MPs probed within a fortnight and initiate criminal cases against those found guilty.

"If the MPs have levelled false allegation, criminal prosecution should be launched against them. Similarly, if there is truth in their allegation, the people who gave the money for the trust vote should be tried for criminal offence," JD(U) general secretary and spokesman Shivanand Tiwari said here.

He said the image of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, considered to be a clean, had received a beating after the bribery charges against the Congress and their supporters in the Samajwadi Party. "The trust vote has come under a cloud following allegations of horse trading," he said.