A Smear Campaign

A smear campaign appears to have been unleashed against civil society members of the Committee constituted to draft the Lokpal Bill. Pursuant to this campaign, some sections of the media has carried stories against me that I have bought a property in Allahabad worth 20 crores for 1 lakh on which stamp duty has been evaded. Shri Digvijay Singh has also raised this issue publicly, without even bothering to read the application u/s 31 of the Stamp Act, filed before the ADM(Finance)/Collector Allahabad. If he had only read that, he would not have raised this issue.

The fact is that the property in question is an old house (on 3 acres of land) which had been under our tenancy for almost 70 years. In 1966 the landlord had agreed by a written agreement to sell this property to me, for Rs. 1 lakh. This became the subject of a suit for specific performance in the Court. This suit was eventually compromised in court, by which about 1/3rd of the land was left for the landlord and the remaining land with the house was sold to us for Rs. 1 lakh.

Under Rule 341 of the U.P Stamp Rules, stamp duty on the sale of a house is on 20 times the rate-able value for house tax. Since it was a tenanted property under rent control, the rate-able value was Rs. 33,360/- and consequently stamp duty was paid on a value of Rs. 6,67,200/-

Simultaneously, an application was made u/s 31 of the Stamp Act (copy of which is attached) to the stamp collector to determine the stamp duty in the light of the above facts. To insinuate that there has been any under-valuation of the property or underpayment of stamp duty, is thus absurd and scurrilous & just shows the desperation of those seeking to derail the bill.

Even more shocking is the circulation of a CD to sections of the media, containing a purported conversation between me, Amar Singh & Mulayam Singh Yadav, which is clearly fabricated, since I have never spoken to Amar Singh. I have lodged an F.I.R with the I.P Ext police station (copy of which is attached) regarding this fabricated CD yesterday & the police has commenced investigations.

But to go to such lengths shows the desperation of these people to discredit the members of the committee & derail the bill.

SHANTI BHUSHAN
Encl: as above.