The noose tightened around former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in the cash-for-votes case after Sanjeev Saxena, believed to a be a former aide of his, told a Delhi court on Tuesday that the money for the bribes offered to three BJP MPs for the confidence vote won by UPA-I in 2008 had been given to him by Singh.

The Delhi police crime branch, which arrested Saxena on Sunday after the supreme court upbraided it for shoddy investigation, secured his custody from special judge Sangeeta Dhingra. The case is now postponed till Thursday, when the court is likely to order Singh's arrest. The three day window gives the police an opportunity to interrogate Saxena on the issue.

Saxena was caught on camera in a sting operation giving money to the BJP MPs Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora.

These MPs had created a scene in the Lok Sabha on July 22, 2008 brandishing Rs 1 crore each in cash allegedly paid to them to buy their votes in favour of the trust vote after the Left withdrew support to the government over the nuclear deal with US.

Police questioned the three MPs who duvulged that it was Saxena who brokered the bribe deal by getting them to talk to Amar Singh on his mobile phone. Singh, however, denied any role in the episode and even distanced himself from Saxena, denying that he was his aide.

Singh was the general secretary of the Samajwadi Party at that time and the Congress had roped in the party to survive the trust vote. He later fell out with Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh, a former U.P. chief minister, and left the party.