Corruption case: Amar Singh gets reprieve from high court

LUCKNOW - The Allahabad High Court Saturday turned down a plea for initiating criminal proceedings against Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.

The petition was moved by lawyer Shiv Kant Tripathi, who had earlier this week lodged a first information report (FIR) in a Kanpur police station accusing Amar Singh of committing fraud through his alleged money laundering operations during his stint as chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Development Council when Mulayam Singh Yadav was chief minister of the state.

Tripathi had accused Amar Singh of siphoning off black money in the name of three dozen companies floated by him under his own name and that of his wife Pankaja Kumari Singh.

Among the company’s beneficiaries was Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

However, Justice Sunil Ambwani declined to entertain the petition on the ground that it was “premature”. The court was of the view that since the FIR was still pending before the police, the court’s intervention at this juncture was unwarranted.

The Uttar Pradesh government Thursday chose to forward the FIR to the Kolkata Police on the plea that all the companies mentioned in the complaint were registered there.

Kolkata Police, however, said that the cases could not be registered in Kolkata as the cause of action arose here.

Tripathi sought the intervention of the Allahabad High Court to initiate necessary legal proceedings.

He is stated to have attached evidence running into about 1,700 pages in support of his accusations.