Twenty days after three BJP MPs waved bundles of notes that they allegedly received to abstain from voting on the trust vote in Parliament, CNN-IBN, the news channel which carried out the sting operation, aired the contentious tapes on Monday night.

The tapes showed Sanjeev Saxena, who the BJP claimed was an aide of SP leader Amar Singh, handing Rs 1 crore to three BJP MPs, who, the party said, were acting as “whistleblowers to expose political corruption.”

Amar Singh denied that Saxena was linked to him and said he was an occasional visitor to his 9, South Avenue office which was in the name of Shahid Siddiqui, the SP leader who has now moved to the BSP.

This is what the tapes aired on Monday night showed:

• SP MP from Allahabad Reoti Raman Singh is seen coaxing the three BJP MPs—Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahavir Bhagora-to accompany him to someone’s residence to “finalise things”.

•The tape shows a Maruti Zen going to Amar Singh’s residence. While the BJP claims that the news channel saw two MPs, Argal and Kulaste, entering Amar Singh’s residence, the reporter said he could only see the middleman, Sohail Hindustani, getting down from the vehicle. The other occupants were not visible as the car had tinted glasses.

•The tape shows Saxena coming to Argal’s residence with a bag of money which he says is Rs 1 crore. While Saxena is repeatedly seen dialling the cellphone and landline numbers of “Boss” and “Singh Sahab,” one of the MPs says he wants to speak to Amar Singh and Saxena passes on the phone to him.

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