Amar Singh accuses man of demanding Rs5 crore before Delhi court

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh today alleged before a Delhi court that a man had demanded Rs5 crore from him to settle a disproportionate assets case pending against his party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in the Supreme Court.

Singh appeared before Metropolitan magistrate Ashu Garg to record his statement in the extortion case. "Accused used to say that he is a law officer in Law and Justice Ministry and claimed to know Justice (retd) AR Lakshamanan and the then Union minister H R Bhardwaj.

"Accused demanded Rs5 crore to settle the matter pending in the Supreme Court and get a favourable judgement through son-in-law of justice Lakshamanan," Singh said.

Singh deposed that he doubted the credibility of accused Barun Kumar Verma, who impersonated as a law officer and caught him arrested after calling the Delhi Police Commissioner.

Singh was also cross-examined by Verma's counsel Anoop Kumar Sharma. During the two-hour long proceeding, the MP lost his cool on a number of occasions during his cross-examination. Singh was visibly angry when defence counsel asked about his failure to appear before the court on the last date of hearing.

Singh, 53, had registered a case against Verma on June 4, 2007 alleging that he tried to extort money from him in connection with hearing of a disproportionate assets case in the apex court relating to Yadav.

The court, meanwhile, recalled a bailable warrant issued against Singh on November 3 for his failure to appear before the court to depose in the case.