Shanti Bhushan serves notice on Digvijaya, wants apology

The war of words between Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh and former law minister Shanti Bhushan escalated on Wednesday.

The war of words between Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh and former law minister Shanti Bhushan escalated on Wednesday.

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While Bhushan served a legal notice on Singh demanding a public apology for alleging that he had undervalued a property in Allahabad and not paid adequate stamp duty on it, the Congressman refused to budge.

“I have not made any allegations. As far as Bhushans are concerned, certain things have come to light. They should come clean on their land dealing in Allahabad …the stamp duty and also explain how they got the prime land in Noida,” Singh said, reacting to the legal notice, a copy of which has also been sent to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

However, Singh said he was yet to receive any notice from Bhushans. “I would like to see or hear what I said that has offended them.”
He also dismissed as “absolutely rubbish” the contention that the Congress was targeting members of the civil society, saying Gandhi and his party do not believe in all these.

‘No plots allotted to Bhushans’

Noida:

The New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) on Wednesday denied having allotted, at throwaway prices, two plots to Shanti Bhushan, and his son Jayant.

The authority also denied reports that the plots were allotted to the Bhushans under a discretionary quota. “We don’t have any discretionary quota. All procedures were followed and utmost transparency was maintained,” said Yashpal Singh, Noida Authority’s OSD.
Singh, also head of the allotment committee for the scheme, said, “It’s an open-ended scheme for development of farm houses on agricultural land. We don’t conduct a draw of lots in such schemes. A panel interviewed applicants and Bhushan had himself come for the interview.”