FIR lodged against Amar Singh by UP Police

Kanpur: Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday night registered an FIR

against cinestar Amitabh Bachchan and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh for allegedly misusing their positions and siphoning off public money during the tenure of the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government in the state.

The FIR was lodged by one Shiv Kumar Tiwari in which he stated that Singh, who was chairman of Uttar Pradesh State Development Council during Yadav's tenure, collected money for setting up industries and later squandered the money.

''It is a fraud committed in the name of public of this state,'' Tiwari said in his FIR lodged with Babupurwa police station in New Labour Colony.

In the four-page FIR, Tiwari said Singh and Bachchan had worked in tandem to squander the money.

Senior police officials are silent over the FIR, saying only investigation will reveal whether they are guilty or not.

Reacting sharply to the issue, Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhry alleged that the FIR was politically motivated. How can people like Amitabh Bachchan and Amar Singh would squander money, he questioned.

During the last regime of Mr Yadav during 2004-07, Amar Singh was the Chairman of the UP Development Council, cinestar Amitabh Bachchan was the Brand Ambassador of UP and had done several advertisements to attract investments.

However, the amount siphoned off is yet to be ascertained.