NEW DELHI: The Kishore Chandra Deo parliamentary committee, set up to establish the facts of the cash-for-votes scandal on Monday, interrogated four witnesses and is now expected to get down to the job of finalising its report before August 29 when its current tenure ends.

Samajwadi Party MP Rewati Raman Singh; Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani’s political aide Sudheendra Kulkarni; the man accused of carrying cash of Rs.1 crore to the residence of Bharatiya Janata Party MP Ashok Argal on July 22, Sanjeev Saxena; and a BJP Yuva Morcha activist, Suhail Hindustani, who coordinated his activities with Mr. Kulkarni, deposed before the committee.

Mr. Deo later told reporters that the work of getting evidence had been completed. Some other members said the next meetings have been fixed for August 26 and 27 when the seven-member committee will get down to the job of finalising its report.

It seems that three members of the committee – V.K. Malhotra (BJP), Mohammad Salim (Communist Party of India - Marxist) and Rajesh Verma (Bahujan Samaj Party) — demanded that Mr. Saxena be submitted to a narco analysis test as what he said before the committee was not borne out by the video-footage of the episode as recorded by CNN-IBN television channel’s camera team present at the residence of Ashok Argal, where the money was allegedly offered as a bribe to three BJP MPs.

Apparently, Mr. Saxena flatly denied that he was involved in any bribe giving but could not explain the video-footage, according to some committee members. The BJP’s charge is that he worked for SP general secretary Amar Singh and carried the cash on his behalf.Written submission

Mr. Hindustani is believed to have made a written submission before the committee where he admitted that he was a BJP activist and his family living in Jaipur had links to the Jana Sangh and then the BJP. He reportedly also admitted that he contacted Mr. Kulkarni and expressed his desire to be useful to the party in exposing the alleged horse-trading of MPs ahead of the trust vote in Parliament.

Although the submissions before the committee are meant to be confidential and a matter of privilege, Mr. Hindustani’s submission was e-mailed to many correspondents by the office of Mr. Kulkarni.

Mr. Hindustani admitted that he accompanied two BJP MPs – Mr. Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste – to the residence of SP general secretary Amar Singh on July 22 morning.
In his evidence, Mr. Kulkarni reportedly stuck to the script of the video-footage shot at Mr. Argal’s residence. He has already admitted he was in Mr. Argal’s house on July 22 and came out in front of the cameras only after the alleged bribe-giver had gone and the `sting operation’ was complete.

Mr. Rewati Raman Singh told reporters outside the venue of the meeting that he had deposed before the committee and he hoped “truth will prevail”.