Second India man arrested over 'vote buying scandal'

Police in India have arrested a second man in connection with the alleged buying of votes during a 2008 vote of confidence in parliament over a civilian nuclear deal with the US. Sohail Hindustani, a political activist, was held on Wednesday. India's Congress party-led government survived the vote amid claims of vote buying. If the government had lost the vote, India would have faced early elections, casting the nuclear deal in doubt. Mr Hindustani's arrest came days after Sanjeev Saxena, alleged to be an aide of a politician, was held in connection with what is called the "cash-for-votes" scandal. Mr Hindustani told reporters before his arrest that he was approached by a senior politician and other leaders to "arrange buying of votes" of some politicians ahead of the trust vote. Earlier this month, India's Supreme Court criticised the police in the capital, Delhi, for carrying out a "shoddy probe" into the scandal. In July 2008 two days of debate on the nuclear accord in parliament ended in uproar with allegations of vote buying. Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members waved wads of currency notes in the air, alleging that they had been offered bribes to abstain. India's media was awash with reports of alleged defections and desertions among MPs ahead of the vote. The opposition claimed that a news channel had secretly recorded the alleged bribe taking. The channel handed over the tapes to parliament speaker Somnath Chatterjee for investigation.