New Delhi, Apr 20: In the continuing war of words with the Bhushans, Amar Singh today dismissed the claim of eminent lawyer Shanti Bhushan that the two have never met and that he had used his chartered aircraft to go to Lucknow for appearing in a case.
Addressing a press conference here, he said that he had participated in a lawyer-client conference in the Samajwadi Party case when some BSP MLAs had joined it in 2006, in which he had a role.
The party also paid the lawyer Rs 50 lakh to fight the anti-defection case.
Singh, who has been accused by Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant of being involved in fabricating a CD against them, the senior Bhushan, co-chair of the Joint Drafting Committee to draft the Lokpal Bill, had used his charted aircraft to reach Lucknow to contest the case in the Bench of the Allahabad High Court on February 28, 2006.
“I was part of the conference where we discussed the case...he appeared twice for the party against BSP,” Singh said adding that the former Law Minister had demanded Rs 50 lakh for the case.
He said initially he was paid Rs 30 lakh in cash and the second instalment of Rs 20 lakh after Bhushan claimed that he needed Rs 25 lakh per appearance.
Singh claimed Bhushan was part of the 80 advocates hired by the SP to defend its case in the High Court.
He said Bhushan would have filed Income Tax returns on the amount received by him and his claims can also be cross-checked from the Directorate General Civil Aviation.
Reacting to media reports that the Mayawati government had early this year allotted two plots of 10,000 sq metres each for farmhouse to Shanti Bhushan and his another son Jayant, Singh said the allotments were a result of Jayant appearing against Mayawati in the Noida statue park case.
When the son “poked” the state government, Noida Authority officials came rushing with the allotment letters. For the huge farmhouse worth crores of rupees they had to pay a mere Rs 35 lakh,” Singh said.
He said he was ready to buy Shanti Bhushan's farmhouse for Rs 10 crore in “white money”.
The former SP leader also criticised Bhushan for his reported remarks that though the allotment process of farmhouses lacked transparency, they would not go to the court as they were not an affected party.
“If your farmhouse allotment is okay, then why did you question allocation of a property to the son of (former Chief Justice of India) Y K Sabarwal. The allotment was done following proper procedures (by the then Mulayam Singh government),” he said.
He alleged that Bhushan had appeared in a case in the Allahabad High Court in May, 2006 without the petitioner seeking his services. He claimed the petitioner had told the court that he had not hired Bhushan as he could not afford his charges.
“Then too, he had flown in a charted aircraft from New Delhi,” Singh said refusing to elaborate.
On the issue of the controversial CD containing the purported conversation between Yadav, Bhushan and himself, he said he would file a contempt case against Bhushan and his son Prashant for playing the CD in public despite a Supreme Court stay.
He said he has sent copies for the CD to two laboratories in India and Sweden, the US and France for forensic tests.
The expelled SP leader also questioned the authenticity of the forensic test claimed to have been on the CD by a US-based expert at the instance of Prashant Bhushan.
“The US labs are closed on weekends. He held a press conference on Sunday last which means that he would have sent the CD there on Wednesday. Else, the report is forged which can be done by paying anything like USD 5,000,” he alleged. PTI
