Court reserves judgement on Bachchan's land

An Uttar Pradesh court Tuesday reserved its judgment till Thursday on a case related to alleged irregularities in allotting government land to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

After hearing the arguments and looking into the relevant documents, Additional Commissioner Vidya Sagar Sagar ruled: "The judgement stands reserved until May 31."

The actor received the land allegedly as a largesse by the government of Mulayam Singh Yadav - who lost the assembly election this month - in Barabanki district, barely 35 km from state capital Lucknow.

Bachchan, said to be close to Yadav's close confidant Amar Singh, allegedly misrepresented facts to become a beneficiary of government land allotment and also used this to establish his credentials as a farmer in Maharashtra and buy land there.

It was a query in March 2006 by the Pune collector to the Barabanki district magistrate for authentication of the Uttar Pradesh testimonial that led to the controversy and allegations against Bachchan.

Then Barabanki district magistrate Ashish Goel cancelled the allotment on the ground that the land revenue records had been fudged. Goel was replaced by Ram Shankar Sahu.

However, as Goel's objections had become a part of official records, Sahu stayed his predecessor's decision "till further orders."

Bachchan then sought a review of the cancellation before the commissioner.