FIR against Amar,Big B for Rs 500-cr ‘fraud’

Tripathi,who owns Saryu Prasad Memorial Higher Secondary School in Shyam Nagar area of Kanpur,claimed he had evidence to show that though Singh has property and assets worth over Rs 500 crore,the total wealth declared by him in his Rajya Sabha nomination was just Rs 32 crore. “I have handed over the evidence of 1,000 pages to Babupurva police,” he added.

“It is surprising that Azimganj House,1st Floor Camac Street,Kolkata,is also the office address of both M/s Pankaja Art & Credit Limited and M/s Sarvottam Caps Ltd. A close scrutiny of financial records reveal that M/s Sarvottam Caps is a shareholder in Ms Pankaja Art & Credit Ltd and vice-versa. The major shares of these two firms are held by Singh,his wife Pankaja and actor Amitabh Bachchan,” Tripathi said.

“The balance sheets,profits and loss accounts of these companies conclusively reveal that though their net worth runs into many crores,they do not have corresponding business income. The six companies have considerable crossholdings and if the corporate crossholdings collapsed,one ends up with mainly Amar Singh,his wife and Amitabh Bachchan as the ultimate beneficial shareholders of the companies,” says the FIR. “Twenty-five companies were amalgamated with M/s Sarvottam Caps Ltd on December 31,2003,and 18 companies with Pankaja Art and Credit Ltd on January 31,2005,but most of these 43 companies appeared as shareholders of the six core companies prior to their amalgamation,” added Tripathi,who has produced documents of Registrar of Companies as evidence.

Senior district police officials are reluctant to comment on the issue,but Kanpur DIG Neera Rawat said a case had been registered against the named persons at Babupurva police station and the investigation had been started.

However,Amar Singh defended himself saying the case was a political conspiracy hatched by UP Chief Minister Mayawati and that he would file criminal defamation cases against her. “The FIR registered against me is virtually illegal as the merger of companies has to be approved by High Court. Are they going to file a case against the judge as well? Neither me nor Amitabh Bachchan is in the board of directors of these companies. We are just shareholders of the company and we hardly had any say. Where is the locus standi for a case against us,” Amar Singh said at a press conference in New Delhi.

“There are no disproportionate assets beyond my source of income. There is no difference between my actual assets and what I have disclosed to the Rajya Sabha. The papers that are being distributed against me are the same papers that I have declared about… If there is any difference in the source of income and the assets,I am ready for an impartial inquiry,” Singh said.

The SP leader came in for support from unexpected quarters. “I am not aware of the details of the case but what I have gathered is that it has been filed on a private complaint … At the first look,it does look like a case of political vendetta,” Digvijay Singh,AICC general secretary in-charge of UP,told reporters here. Singh said the administration in UP had been very quick in lodging the complaint against Singh and others when the case should have been probed by the central agency concerned.

Praising AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh for condemning the lodging of the FIR,Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav,however,said: “The Congress should not confine itself to just condemning the incident,this is not sufficient; the Congress leader should prevail upon the Prime Minister to take action.” Questioning the legal validity of the FIR,Mulayam said,“Investigation into the charges levelled in the FIR is beyond the jurisdiction of the state government. If there is any irregularity in the companies,then only the Union Ministry of Company Affairs and the Company Law Board are the competent authority to take action”.

(With ENS,New Delhi)