Taking serious note of some Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament seeking commission in the MP Local Area Development funds, as exposed in a sting operation, the BJP Tuesday suspended former Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste from the party.
The decision was taken by the BJP Parliamentary Party chaired by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. BJP president Lal Kishenchand Advani was also present in the meeting, which was attended by almost all members.
Talking to newspersons after the meeting, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Chandra Pratap Singh was already under suspension after he was alleged to have accepted bribes for asking questions in Parliament.
Besides Kulaste and Singh, Ramswaroop Koli was the third BJP member, who has been accused in the scam.
Malhotra said the party had not taken any immediate action against Koli as he was not shown on TV accepting the money.
Addressing the meeting, Vajpayee expressed surprise over the involvement of MPs in the bribery scam and said corruption in any manner would not be accepted in the party.
He said the party will have a serious discussion on the issue at the Mumbai convention later in December.
Later talking to newspersons, Koli denied his involvement in the scam and said he would challenge the allegations in the court against the TV channel.
He also denied that he had any personal secretary by the name of Om Prakash and nor had he signed any letter purported to have been written by him to the authorities.
Koli said he had not been at home on that day as he was attending a meeting of Rajasthan MPs. He said he always wrote letters by hand and never got them typed.
