Lie Of The Land
How Outlook Broke The Bachchan Land Scam Story
2000-2001: Bachchan buys 24 acres of agricultural land near Lonavala, Maharashtra, claiming he is a farmer.
In April2005, Outlook exposes the deal. Immediately, P. Deshmukh, district collector, Pune, orders Bhanudas Gaikwad, SDM of Maval, to inquire into Bachchan’s claim of being a farmer.
October2005: Bachchan submits an affidavit claiming he is a farmer as he owns farm land in Barabanki, UP.
March 2006 Amitabh asked by SDM Maval to furnish documents to prove ownership of land in Barabanki.
March 2006: Barabanki’s DM receives an application from AB to update land records and certify the allotment of land to him in Daulatpur.
An inquiry by district authorities reveals that the land records were forged between March 10 and March 22, 2006. District magistrate Ashish Kumar Goel suspends the clerk responsible for the forgery. Allotment of land stayed. Goel is transferred on April 11, ’06.
April 26, 2006 The new DM Rama Shankar Sahu issues an order lifting the stay and "returning’ the land to AB. He buys two more plots of land in Daulatpur village in May 2006.
June 1, 2007 Case re-opened by the Mayawati government. Faizabad revenue court upholds the earlier order of the Barabanki DM cancelling the land allotment. The court rules that the land records were also forged. Amitabh is no farmer.
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"All I wish to state for now is that I am a law-abiding citizenof my country. I have the deepest respect and regard for the judiciary and the judicialsystem of India."
—Amitabh Bachchan to Outlook on June 6, 2007
It was only when the SDM started asking questions that Amitabh applied his mind to the problem. He had to show that he owned agricultural land prior to 2000 to keep the 24 acres. (Incidentally, just across this plot lies the gleaming Amby Valley, developed by another good friend, and Mulayam loyalist, Subroto Roy.) Perhaps a friend in the Samajwadi Party suggested that if he had no such property, land records in UP could be "managed". All it required was a document and a certificate from a district magistrate. And where else could this be easily organised other than in Amitabh's home state UP, ruled by his good friend Mulayam Singh? .
Well, it was at this point that Big B came to know of the 1.25-hectare plot in Daulatpur village. The actor sent his lawyers to the district collector in Pune. He was indeed a farmer and owned agricultural land in Uttar Pradesh, he said. Proof of ownership would follow soon.
Outlook travelled to Daulatpur last week. All the twelve families who actually own land on Survey No. 702 are surprised with the media asking them questions about the Big B. They have been living on the land since the '70s and have never set eyes on the superstar. Says Karnail Singh, pushing 75, as he surveys the land that he has tilled for the last twenty years: "If Bachchan came to us and asked for the land, we would have given it to him." Wonders Kishan Chand, another farmer: "I have heard he earns Rs 5 crore per film. In a very good year the maximum that I make is Rs 50,000 from this land. So why is Amitabh interested? I don't think he even knows how to plough." Of course, in the event Bachchan's claim wins in the court, these farmers will become landless.
But it is unlikely that he would ever take away their land. He has actually never ever set foot on Daulatpur and perhaps never will. Yet, there were celebrations in the village when the Faizabad court ruled on June 2 that the land does not belong to the Bachchans. The star has gone in appeal to the Allahabad High Court which reserved its judgement on June 7.
What Amitabh's friends in the SP did was fudge the records in the Barabanki district collector's office to show that when the land survey was carried out in 1983 Bachchan had been "allotted" land. The fact that twelve families already owned the 1.25-hectare plot was incidental. In any case, their land would not be actually transferred.
It would have all gone unnoticed had the DM of Barabanki, Ashish Kumar Goel, not smelt a rat. It surprised him that a star of Amitabh's stature was allotted land in an obscure village. A routine inquiry he ordered on March 22, 2006, brought to light the fudging of records. This led him to stay the land 'allotment'. Goel was transferred. The new DM who replaced him passed an order vacating the stay on April 26, 2006.
Jaya didn’t mention the land in her affidavit, with Amar Singh
Perhaps Bachchan had smelt trouble ahead. Which is why on May 15, 2006, he quickly purchased two more plots (Survey No. 711 and 793) in the same village using the services of two brothers, Vijay and Vinay Shukla. A power of attorney from Bachchan to the Shukla brothers helped them register it in Bachchan's name. But this created a new headache for the star as this purchase was left out of the affidavit by his wife Jaya Bachchan when she filed her nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat. In fact, her affidavit is also vague about the "allotted" land in Barabanki. While it records that the land is in Daulatpur village, it leaves out the survey number of the land that would help pinpoint its location.
While the Central Election Commission took cognisance of the complaint alleging that the land was deliberately left out of the affidavit, Jaya claims that the new land purchase was not mentioned because the land records had not been transferred to her husband's name when she filed her affidavit. But the fact is that the sale deed, a copy of which is with Outlook, shows that the deal was concluded on May 15 after full payment and it was registered at the Fatehpur tehsil.
In Daulatpur villagers are confused by Bachchan's interest in their land. "Why did he forge documents to prove he owned land here? What is there in Daulatpur that attracts such a big man?" asks Rajesh Kumar, a landless Dalit. These are the questions the farmers of Daulatpur would like to ask Amitabh. Perhaps, some day, Bachchan might actually take the road not taken and drive to this little dusty village.
