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NEW DELHI: Saying there was no prima facie evidence to show that three BJP MPs took bribe, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted them bail in the cash-for-vote scam case. It also gave similar relief to L K Advani’s former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, Sohail Hindustani and Sanjeev Saxena, all co-accused in the case.

"I have gone through the entire voluminous chargesheet but couldn’t find any evidence on record of demand and acceptance of illegal gratification by the three MPs (Ashok Argal, Mahavir Singh Bhagora and Faggan Singh Kulaste)," Justice M L Mehta observed in an order that also granted anticipatory bail to Argal, summoned by a special court to stand trial in the case.

HC saw merit in the contention of the petitioners that the motive for the entire sting operation was to expose the horse trading that was supposed to take place in the trust motion in Parliament, and said even the basic requirement to attract Prevention of Corruption Act appeared to be lacking at this stage.

It termed Hindustani as a "whistle-blower" who engineered the sting operation and pointed out that there was no evidence yet of any criminal conspiracy by the accused in organizing the sting operation in partnership with a private news channel. Referring to Kulkarni, the court pointed out he wasn’t a public servant and he was "neither the giver nor taker of the money and was also not present at the time of alleged negotiations".

"If there was any conspiracy between the petitioners or with the bribe givers they wouldn’t have associated themselves with the news channel and exposed themselves to the act of taking money before the camera," Justice Mehta noted, picking holes in the case of the prosecution.

All the petitioners were granted bail on furnishing of a personal and a surety bond of Rs 2 lakh each and directed to join investigation as and when asked for.

Initially opposing any relief, Delhi Police had later informed the court that it had no objection to the grant of bail as investigation in the case was over and they were not required for custodial interrogation.

While Argal, who is yet to be arrested in the case, had sought anticipatory bail in the case, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh was granted bail earlier by the HC on health grounds.

Kulkarni has been in jail since September 27 while Bhagora and Kulaste were arrested along with Amar Singh on September 6. Hindustani and Saxena were arrested on July 17 after the Supreme Court pulled up the police for its tardy probe.

Kulkarni, in his petition, had claimed that he along with the BJP MPs got involved in the sting operation conducted by a private news channel only to expose the "horse trading" that was going on to save the then UPA-1 government in the trust vote in Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008.

During the arguments, senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for an accused, had said "no criminal motive could be attributed in the case as it was a sting operation which was conducted to expose the horse trading and not to get illegal gratification".

The whistleblower MPs got themselves "bugged" to catch the culprits, Singh had said, adding, "Instead of being made witnesses, they have been made accused and put behind bars."