NEW DELHI: Congress leader Ahmed Patel and Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh yesterday got a clean chit from a parliamentary panel that probed allegations that they had bought votes ahead of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s trust vote on July 22.

A seven-member panel under the chairmanship of Congress’ V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo was formed after three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs — Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora — stunned the nation by brandishing wads of cash in the Lok Sabha shortly before the Manmohan Singh government was to face the trust vote July 22 evening.

The BJP MPs had alleged that they were bribed to abstain during the July 22 trust vote. “Not an iota of evidence either in the page or in any of the depositions made by the witnesses who appeared before the committee which may prove Ahmed Patel’s involvement in the alleged offer of money to the complainant,” the panel said in its report.

The panel found no evidence to back the charge of the three MPs even in the case of the Amar Singh. “For want of any such recording of impugned conversation or any other proof with regard to offer of money, it is not possible to come to any conclusion on the veracity of the allegations or otherwise.”

The panel has demanded that the case be probed by an appropriate agency. “Ashok Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste admitted having never met Patel and also they did not recognize his voice. The committee (is) therefore of the view that there is practically no case against Patel. His alleged complicity in the episode is based entirely on presumptions and surmises,” the committee’s report said. “There is no direct evidence against Amar Singh,” it stated.

The committee found no evidence against Rewati Raman Singh (SP), who was also implicated. The allegations that Rewati Raman Singh sought to “influence the three members to either vote against or abstain from voting on the confidence motion and persuade them to meet Amar Singh at the latter’s instance could not be substantiated with the help of any clinching evidence.”

“For want of any such recording of the impugned conversation/talk or any other proof with regard to offer of money, it is not possible to come to any conclusion on the veracity of the allegations or otherwise,” the committee said.

The committee has recommended probe into roles of Sanjeev Saxena, Suhail Hindustani and Sudheendra Kulkarni, an aide of BJP leader L.K. Advani.