Sushma to meet former BJP MPs in Tihar

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Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj will on Tuesday meet the arrested Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who are lodged in Tihar jail in connection with the cash-for-vote scandal.

Swaraj will be meeting two former BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora as well as Sudheendra Kulkarni, media advisor to Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was the Prime Minister.

“Going to meet Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora and Sudheendra Kulkarni in Tihar jail on Tuesday at 3 00 PM,” Swaraj said on micro-blogging site Twitter. BJP has been upset as former Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh, who was accused in the same case, got bail on Monday while the BJP members remain in jail.

“She is meeting them to wish them on Diwali. While those guilty in the cash-for-vote incident are roaming free, the whistleblowers are in jail,” a BJP leader said.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Monday had expressed dismay that his colleagues who brought to light the alleged bribery of opposition MPs during the July 2008 trust vote "continued to be in prison".

“That those who made the complaint and should have never been made accused in the first place are languishing in jail when others are being let out is a sad commentary on our justice delivery system," he told a news channel. On July 22, 2008, the three BJP MPs waved wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha ahead of a trust vote, alleging they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government. Another BJP MP, Ashok Argal, has not been arrested yet.