Amitabh lands Jaya in trouble: She may be disqualified again from the RS over a plot her ‘farmer’ husband bought in UP.
Amitabh lands Jaya in trouble: She may be disqualified again from the RS over a plot her ‘farmer’ husband bought in UP.
LUCKNOW: Even as Amitabh Bachchan is grappling with the Income Tax Department, he may have, without realising it, landed Jaya Bachchan in trouble. Congressmen in Uttar Pradesh are plotting her ouster from the Rajya Sabha yet again.
This time the charge is concealment of property. Ameer Haider, a Congress leader of Barabanki district, about 20 km from Lucknow, has alleged that Jaya Bachchan withheld information about two plots of land Amitabh bought in Barabanki. The land was bought just 15 days before she filed her nomination for the bye-election to the Rajya Sabha.
The bye-election was held after she was disqualified in March for holding an office-of-profit as the chairperson of the UP Film Development Council.
The Congress is about to raise a stink. “We will write to the EC to disqualify her from the RS,” said senior Congress leader Siraj Mehdi.
He said he would be sending the relevant documents to the EC soon. The affidavit she filed with her nomination mentions only one plot in Barabanki district. However, two other plots of land, registered in Amitabh’s name have been skipped, alleged Mehdi.
Jaya’s form this year reflected a 0.25 hectare land in survey no. 702 in Daulatpur, which is pegged at Rs five lakhs. However, on the basis of a power of attorney by Amitabh Bachchan; Vinay Kumar Shukla, resident of Barabanki, had purchased 0.441 and 0.134 hectares of land bearing survey numbers 711 and 793 on May 15, 2005. Vinay had bought these plots for Amitabh from his brother Vijay Kumar Shukla who had purchased both the plots from Dev Narayan Singh, resident of Goda Devaria, on April 24, 2006 and Savran Singh on April 17, 2006. The Sub registrar of Fatehpur, Shyam Singh Vishen, has evaluated the properties at Rs three lakh.
Congress and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party have also demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into land purchases by Amitabh Bachchan.
The actor had purchased 20 acres of agricultural land near Lonavala (Pune) in 2000. Under Maharashtra’s Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1963, only farmers are eligible to buy agricultural land. The Pune district authorities had issued a notice to Amitabh in November 2005 asking him to prove his status as a farmer.
The 0.25-hectare plot of land in Barabanki was purchased by Amitabh allegedly for a certificate from the district magistrate establishing him as a farmer since 1982.
No Samajwadi Party leader was willing to comment on the matter. Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan were also unavailable for comments.
With additional inputs from Vijay Upadhyay in Daulatpur (Barabanki)
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