Bank account holders from whose bank accounts cash had been withdrawn to make the alleged pay-offs to MPs in the cash-for-vote scam in 2008 are now being questioned by the Delhi police.
Sources in the crime branch of the Delhi police told this newspaper that the account holders had been issued due summons.
The political connections, if any, of the individuals concerned are also being verified, sources said.
The Delhi police was recently rapped by the Supreme Court to get to the source of the cash that found its way to the three BJP MPs who dramatically displayed bundles of currency notes during the trust vote in the Lok Sabha in 2008. The trio charged that they had been paid money to switch sides to support the Congress-led UPA government, but they chose to expose the scandal.
The Delhi police has identified eight different banks from which the money was withdrawn. However, the identity of the people who withdrew the funds remains elusive.
“We have approached the banks for help in finding the whereabouts of the persons who withdrew the money that was recovered from the accused parliamentarians in 2008. But there has been no response so far. We have however collected CCTV footage from some of the banks. This is being examined,” DCP (crime) Ashok Chand, who is supervising the investigations of the scam, told this newspaper.
The crime branch has traced the 10 bundles of `10 lakhs each to Bank of India, Pragati Gramin Bank, Canara Bank, ING Vysya Bank, Axis Bank, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank and Union Bank of India in the cities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mysore and Jaipur.
The serial numbers of the notes and the slips attached to the bundles helped investigators in identifying these banks. In Delhi, the money was found to have been drawn from Connaught Place, Hauz Khas, New Friends Colony and Nehru Place. In some cases, sources said, investigations had shown that accounts from which money was taken out were “owned by bogus people who remain untraceable”.