On March 17, days after the WikiLeaks disclosure rocked Parliament, V.K. Shashi Kumar, who headed the CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team (SIT) conducting the sting of MPs being bribed, wrote on his Facebook wall: "Why do we need Americans to tell us the truth, when it has been staring at us for three years?"

TV grab of Saxena (in black shirt) with Argal (in white shirt) at Argal's residence. TV grab of Saxena (in black shirt) with Argal (in white shirt) at Argal's residence.

Several members of the CNN-IBN sit involved in the cash-for-votes investigation, claims Shashi Kumar, were already aware of horse-trading in Parliament for the July 22, 2008, no-confidence motion vote. For nearly a week, a close confidant of a north Indian chief minister was busy coordinating MPs from Punjab and some North-eastern states to save the day for the Government.

CNN-IBN's key journalist Siddharth Gautam, currently with Headlines Today, however, says he knew nothing about the politics involved. "Investigation is normally planned for days. But here, I was asked one evening to get ready for a big assignment," he says, even though the offices of CNN-IBN in Noida were abuzz with hushed conversations for over a fortnight.

On the night of July 21, 2008, Gautam was to head for the heart of Delhi-Balwant Rai Mehta Lane right behind the imposing Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. There he met Sudheendra Kulkarni, a senior BJP functionary. "He was to lead me to the most definitive sting operation of my life," says Gautam. The plan was a sting operation at hotel Le Meridien to film Ahmed Patel, a top Congress leader, allegedly ready to offer cash to some BJP MPs. The problem was that Patel never appeared. The three BJP MPs-Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora-waited at the same house where Gautam met Kulkarni. Soon, they were joined by Suhail Hindustani, an associate of Kulkarni. Hindustani talked endlessly on his mobile phone.

Gautam insisted on accompanying the MPs but they were not keen. Worse, Bhagora refused to go to Le Meridien. Gautam then wired up the other two MPs, Argal and Kulaste, with spy cameras and all headed for the hotel. The two MPs went in while Gautam and Kulkarni sat at a Cafe Coffee Day in Connaught Place. An hour later, Kulkarni got a call on his mobile phone. The caller asked him to head back to the hotel.

The two MPs said no one came with the cash. Gautam checked the footage. One camera had recorded vague conversations of people and visuals of the roof of a room. "I realised the MP must have scratched his chest and dislodged the camera from its position," says Gautam. The second camera recorded visuals of some Congressmen who hang around Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Gautam could sense that the Congress was actively involved in the cash-for-votes gameplan.

Kulkarni, Gautam and the two MPs headed back to the Balwant Rai Lane home. The tape was rechecked but it showed the same footage. Kulkarni was upset. Equally upset was senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who had apparently masterminded the operation and rushed to see the result late in the night. "He was livid and blamed us for reaching late. Jaitley said that's why the Congress paymaster went away," says Gautam.

TV grab of Bhagora ( in Kurta) at Argal's residence. TV grab of Bhagora ( in Kurta) at Argal's residence.

The scene of action then shifted to Argal's house. The three BJP MPs were to assemble there in the morning of July 22, 2008, and then go to the home of Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. Kulkarni said Amar would organise the cash and it would be offered to the MPs, all to be captured on camera. But the MPs didn't want to carry hidden cameras to Amar's house. There was some talk of Amar visiting Argal, but the sp leader conveyed that he would send cash through his associate, Sanjeev Saxena. It was then that Gautam suggested the sting at Argal's home itself. Kulkarni and Hindustani agreed. Once the place was wired up, the CNN-IBN journalists went home.

On the morning of July 22, the journalists returned. Gautam sat in a car, waiting to instruct technicians (they were in the adjacent room) to start recording the moment cash appeared. Saxena made two trips. On his first trip, he brought insufficient cash and was sent back by Hindustani. Saxena came again. The hidden cameras recorded him emptying cash on the table.

Gautam was overjoyed. Once Saxena was gone, he interviewed the MPs, who said on camera that they were offered cash for votes. Gautam did his mandatory piece to the camera and rushed to office. Once his script was done, he waited for a call from CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai. No call came. For hours, video editors sat with the tapes. Gautam was not allowed inside the editing bay. "I sat in a corner of the office like an outcast though I was the key person in the investigation," recalls Gautam.

And then, all hell broke loose. All Gautam could hear was two words as an explanation for Sardesai's volte-face: inconclusive evidence. Senior producers of the channel screamed. Do you know the Government will fall if this is shown on air? Gautam wondered why he was sent for the sting operation when the channel was not ready to air it.

Sardesai went on air on July 22, 2008, outside Parliament to say his channel had done a sting operation and it would be soon telecast. Then he went off air. Then he surfaced again to say he was heading to the office of Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee to hand over the tapes in the national interest. But he didn't go to the speaker for the next three days.

Sardesai, who had not talked to Gautam so far, asked if he needed police protection. For what, asked Gautam? "I felt like a stray dog," says Gautam, who resigned from the channel and took a bus to Dharamshala. Many MPs asked him if the tapes were doctored. And then, on August 11, 2008, almost 20 days after the incident, when the story had become completely irrelevant, CNN-IBN telecast the investigation.

Here too, it was less than honest. "A vital portion of the tape showing movement of cars from Amar Singh's home was deleted," says a senior journalist involved in editing of the footage. Was that to save Amar and those on whose behalf the sp leader was working? The journalist did not answer. Repeated attempts to reach Sardesai proved futile. Gautam was later called by the news channel for a deposition before a Parliamentary committee. He rehearsed with his former colleagues for a day and eventually offered "doctored statements".

Thanks to WikiLeaks, his mobile phone has started buzzing again. Officers of the Crime Branch of Delhi Police are among the callers. They want to record his statement. Why now?