Plea for criminal case against Amitabh Bachchan

LUCKNOW - A woman village-head in Uttar Pradesh Saturday sought a local court’s intervention to get a criminal case registered against Amitabh Bachchan in Barabanki district, where the megastar has bought land to build a women’s college.

Complainant Raj Kumari is the ‘gram pradhan’ (village head) of Daulatpur village, where the mega star had acquired five bighas of land to build a college in the name of his star daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai.

In an application moved before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Barabanki, Raj Kumari has accused Bachchan of “playing fraud” on the people of the village by not keeping his word of building a women’s college.

She has further charged Bachchan of threatening her with dire consequences when she approached him to honour his commitment to the local population.

The court has fixed May 31 for hearing the case.

Earlier, Bachchan has faced charges of acquiring 2.5 bighas of agricultural land owned by the local ‘gram sabha’ allotted in his name through “fraudulent means”.

Subsequently, he purchased three bighas of private land. Together with his close friend, former Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, he travelled all the way to Daulatpur village in 2006 along with his wife Jaya, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya. And amidst much fanfare, he declared that the college would be named after Aishwarya.

However, there was no activity on the plot in all these years, following which the village head moved the court.