Here are the excerpts of his interview:
Rajdeep Sardesai: After what you have gone through in the last month, do you regeret your involvement in the sting operation?
Sudheendra Kulkarni: Not in the least, I have not for a moment regretted my role either when I was in jail or even before I was going to jail. I feel proud of whatever I did and I can say that. The role played by my colleagues, the 3 BJP MPs and Sohail Hindustani, our stand has been vindicated, the truth has come out although it is partial truth. The full truth is yet to come out but the nation today knows that money was paid in crores for buying non-UPA MPs and our role was to expose this corruption scandal. The fact that we have to go jail, it was not matter of distress or inconvenience at all. I have been saying for months before going to jail that I am prepared to do so if the truth comes out.
Rajdeep Sardesai: You said the whole truth must come out, I presume it is the money trail actually who is behind the payment of money. After 3 years how does one establish the money trail, especially since the police didn't act for two and a half years?
Sudheendra Kulkarni: See the fact that the investigative agency slept over the matter for 2 and a half years, this episode took place in Julyy 2008. For two and a half years nothing came out that itself shows that the government did not want the truth to come out, it is only when the Supreme Court started arm twisting the investigating agency.
Rajdeep Sardesai: There is still the question which the police has made the basis of their case, that you were the mastermind and this was entrapment?
Sudheendra Kulkarni: That argument has fallen flat long ago, when the chargesheet itself said that somebody, leader of Samajwadi Party sent Rs 1 crore to be paid to 3 BJP MPs for horse-trading. The charge of entrapment got demolished because bribe giving and entrapment cannot go together. In this case the bribe giver was genuine, the bribe takers were dummy, they were virtual bribe takers. They did not take the money. They immediately submitted the money before the speaker of the Lok Sabha and this fact has been acknowledged by the honourable Delhi High Court.
Rajdeep Sardesai: The police has also claimed that their investigation is over, the final chargesheet has been filed. Is there space for further investigation?
Sudheendra Kulkarni: People of India have a right to know that who were the masterminds of the real criminal conspiracy of enacting this cash for vote scandal. Money was paid as bribes, the purpose was to save the government. The government was the ultimate beneficiary, therefore, some people in the ruling establishment played a role. That role has not been investigated. That investigation must be completed, that investigation must be taken to it's logical conclusion and the real guilty must go to Tihar Jail.
Rajdeep Sardesai: The one other charge that the police has made is that why didn't you call the police when the money was handed over to the MPs?
Sudheendra Kulkarni: Now tell me Rajdeep, you were also part of us, do you go and inform the police? How can the police be expected to keep it confidential and do their job dutifully and not reveal the matter to their political bosses whose govt was about to collapse? You should go by the Supreme Court judgment recently in the Anirudhh Behl case. The Supreme Court has very clearly established that the whistleblowers are not required to inform the police and in this particular case our 3 MPs immediately informed the relevant authority that is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
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