Bhushans should come out with proof, says Amar Singh

The former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, talks to the media on controversial CD case at his residence in New Delhi on Monday.

Former Samajwadi Party member Amar Singh on Monday challenged the father-son duo of Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan to prove that the controversial CD containing a conversation with him and SP chief Mulayam Singh allegedly on a legal deal was false and asked them to step down from the joint drafting panel on Lokpal Bill.

Addressing a news conference here, Mr. Amar Singh said, the Bhushans should come out with proof that the CD was false and fabricated. “If Prashant Bhushan, or his father (Shanti Bhushan) have some proof they can come out with it. Mr. Shanti Bhushan should give his voice samples to the Home Ministry,” he said.

Stung by the contempt of court case filed against him, he in turn charged Mr. Prashant Bhushan with ``contempt of court'' for distributing to media CDs that contained “illegally tapped and morphed/edited and tampered conversations'' from CDs made from his tapped phone recordings in 2006, which were subject matter of a court case. The court had banned playing of Mr. Singh's recorded phone conversations, while Mr. Prashant Bhushan, had been pleading for removing the injunction. Court judgment is reserved in the matter.

On Sunday Mr. Prashant Bhushan told media that the CD that had suddenly come up to discredit his father, contained Mr. Mulayam Singh's dialogues cut straight from Mr. Amar Singh's 2006 phone recordings CD and pasted onto the new CD proving that it was a fabricated CD. He had got the CD checked out by reputed U.S. and Hyderabad forensic labs.

On his part, Mr. Amar Singh lodged a complaint with the Indraprastha police station here against distribution of ``at least five versions'' of CDs. “The same invisible Mr. India who gave the Bhushan CD to two newspaper offices, gave me five versions, three of which I have submitted to the police for investigation.''

Alleging impropriety, he also questioned the Bhushans on the alleged undervalued stamp duty matter in a Allahabad property that his “respected elder brother [Congress general secretary] Digvijay Singh had raised.''

A strong critic of the Congress while he was in the Samajwadi Party, Mr. Amar Singh on Monday staunchly defended the Congress, saying it had taken action in various corruption cases. “Ashok Chavan [former Maharashtra Chief Minister] resigned because his name came in the Adarsh scam; [Suresh] Kalmadi resigned because his name figured [in Commonwealth Games scam]; A. Raja, a Minister was sent to jail,” he added.

Asking the Bhushans to resign from the joint drafting committee, he said among the first to raise the voice against corruption was Ram Jethmalani, who could replace them .