Wonder how Bhushan calls himself honest: Amar

In the continuing war of words with the Bhushans, Amar Singh on Wednesday 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 in New Delhi, 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.

"Shanti Bhushanji, you say you do not know me. Why did you accept Rs 50 lakhs in cash from Viren Bhatia in my presence for fighting a case for the party? It is my bad luck that Viren Bhatia is no more. Let Mulayam Singh contradict it. I am sure in 2006 he must have acknowledged receipt of this money while filing income tax returns. He buys land of 25 crore in one lakh, he pays 30 lakh for two farm houses worth Rs 10 crore and still says that he is a honest man. I worried about his reputation," Amar Singh said.

"I am not talking about the contents of the CD because I will wait for report from forensic labs in US, France and India. I have no problem of getting the contents varified by the CBI as well. I respect Anna Hazare. The day Shanti Bhushan and his son are removed from the Lokpal Bill drafting committee, I would wear a Gandhian cap and say Anna Hazare Zindabad," he added.

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.

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.

Additional Reportage: PTI