By IANS
New Delhi : Delhi Police Monday nabbed from Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh's residence a man who allegedly offered help in settling a court case against party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Plainclothes personnel took away the man, B.K. Verma, from Amar Singh's residence, 27 Lodhi Estate.
Amar Singh told reporters that Verma for some months had been calling him up, claiming to be "a law officer and seemed to be aware of the disproportionate assets case (case of corruption)".
Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Vishwanath Chaturvedi, the Supreme Court had in March ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the allegation that Mulayam, his MP son Akhilesh Yadav and the family had amassed assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
"Verma demanded Rs.50 million to fix the case in our favour. He claimed to personally know Justice (A.R.) Lakshmanan and Vishwanath Chaturvedi," he said.
"Initially, I ignored these calls. Later when I was admitted to the Batra Hospital, this man attempted to break my security ring and reach me there. Some days back Verma called up again and made patently false claims about Justice Lakshmanan and Chaturvedi," said Amar Singh.
Shortly before he retired in March, Justice Lakshmanan had broken down in the Supreme Court alleging that he had received an anonymous letter on the day he was to hear a review petition by Akhilesh Yadav on the CBI probe.
"This morning when he called up my secretary Gitanjali again, I decided to call his bluff and asked my secretary to invite him over to my house. After treating him to tea and snacks, I told him I was ready to pay him Rs.10 million as advance. Then I started chatting him up to find out more about him and also called up Delhi Police Commissioner K.K. Paul who immediately rushed a police team."
Saying that the man "appears to be some kind of a cheat or fraud", Amar Singh said he wanted police to investigate the matter.
He said it was a strange coincidence that "only today some intruder broke into Amitabh Bachchan's house in Mumbai". The film actor is known to be a close friend of Amar Singh.