Amitabh Bachchan's real life seems to be following one of the reel dramas that he has enacted. The latest is that the star has decided not to donate his Lonavala land to farmers displaced by the construction of a dam.
For those who came in late, here's the whole story: The Lucknow High Court recently absolved Bachchan from an alleged land scam where he had declared himself as a farmer.
A case was filed against him by the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government. They stated in court that the Mulayam Singh government bent rules to donate agricultural land at Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district to Bachchan since he was close to the Samajwadi Party.
Bachchan declared himself a farmer on the basis of owning the land in UP, and purchased land at Pale village near Lonavala, 70 kilometres from Mumbai in 2000. As per Section 63 of Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act 1948, no person can purchase agricultural land in Maharashtra if he is not a farmer.
When a case was filed in the Uttar Pradesh court, Bachchan decided to donate his land at Barabanki as well as Lonavala to the villagers of the respective areas. But when the Lucknow High Court absolved Bachchan of all charges against him, the superstar decided take his land back!
Confirming Bachchan's decision, sub-divisional officer of Maval Taluka Sanjaysinh Chavan told PTI, "We have received a letter from Bachchan on Monday saying he wants to unconditionally withdraw his earlier decision to donate his land to the original owners."
The letter was delivered to the office of SDO through his counsel Unmesh Deshpande. In the letter, the Big B says, "I myself as karta (the family head) and on behalf of my son, Abhishek, request you to kindly treat the matter closed.
"We realise that our action and interaction to surrender the land in favour of the erstwhile owners was based on utterly wrong premises. We, therefore, unconditionally withdraw the said letter send dated July 19, 2007," he added.
The Uttar Pradesh government has now said that they will file a review petition against Bachchan in the Supreme Court.
