Land allotment to Big B: Judgement reserved

Lucknow, May 29 (UNI) The commissioner's court at Faizabad today reserved its judgement on the case relating to the alleged irregularities in allotment of a government land at Barabanki to Mega Superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

Additional Commissioner Vidya Sagar Prasad reserved his judgement after more than two hour long arguement by both the sides.

This was the 15th hearing of the case before the judgement was reserved.

The judgement is expected to be delivered on Thursday.

Earlier, the counsel of the actor had sought review of an order of the Barabanki district magistrate quashing the allotment citing violation of rules, in the court of the Faizabad divisional commissioner.

The previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government had allotted three bighas (about 70,000 sq ft) of prime land in Barabanki district to Mr Bachchan, a close confidante of the Samajwadi Party.

The district magistrate Barabanki had alleged that the Bollywood icon had ''misrepresented facts'' to receive the benefit.

Later, Mr Bachchan also reportedly used the allotment as a testimonial to establish his credentials as a farmer to buy agricultural land in Pune, Maharashtra, as the state's rules do not permit anyone other than a farmer to purchase such land.

It was a query by the Pune collector in March 2006 to the Barabanki district magistrate for authentication of the Uttar Pradesh testimonial that revealed the alleged irregularities.

Then Barabanki district magistrate Ashish Goel cancelled the allotment on the grounds that the land revenue records were fake.

The official was replaced within a few days and his successor Ram Shankar Sahu stayed the cancellation ''till further orders.'' Mr Bachchan then approached the divisional commissioner to get the land restored in his name.

Yesterday, Mr Bachchan had said he was ready to face probe in the matter.

Talking to a news channel, he said: ''I am a law-abiding citizen and will obey whatever the law asks me to do. If proved wrong, we are ready to face penalty.'' ''If everything is found to be in order, I would say thank you,'' the actor added.

He also refused to comment on Mayawati government's decision to probe the legality of the land allotment in Barbanki district, but maintained that the property papers given to him by the government were in order.

''Now, the government is saying that it should be probed... I am ready,'' he added.

The Election Commission had sought a report from the district administration following a complaint that Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan had not mentioned the said property in her declaration at the time of filing nomination for the Rajya Sabha poll in 2006.

State principal secretary (Assembly) R P Pandey probing the matter will pronounce his decision next week.

UNI