Senior
lawyers rally behind Bhushans, some decline comment
Saturday April 23, 2011 07:55:24 PM,
IANS
|
New Delhi:
Senior lawyers like Rajinder Sachar and Kamini Jaiswal have backed
the Lokpal Bill drafting committee co-chair Shanti Bhushan and his
son and panel member Prashant Bhushan, who face allegations of
corruption, while some others declined to comment on the
controversy.
Even as Sachar, a former chief justice of Delhi High Court, and
Jaiswal described the attack as "unfortunate" and "motivated",
others hedged the issue, citing their ignorance of the facts and
pre-occupations.
The Bhushans are accused of wrong-doing in land deals in Noida and
Allahabad, which they have vigorously denied. They also figure in
a controversial audio CD which has purported conversations between
Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh and expelled
SP member Amar Singh trying to fix a dubious legal deal.
While a Delhi Police source said the CD was not tampered with, the
civil activists claimed the CD was fake.
Defending the Bhushans, Jaiswal quipped: "Amar Singh is the
biggest CD maker in the country. He has a CD on every one in the
town."
She said the attack on the Bhushans was in fact directed against
the bench that had heard the 2G scam case and Amar Singh's tapes
case. "All this is to derail the verdict by a bench that had taken
a strong view on the manner in which the allocation of licences
and 2G spectrum was done," she claimed.
It is not just the politicians but even the corporate world, hit
adversely by the case in the apex court, who are also behind it,
contended Jaiswal.
Sachar also described the allegations as "unfortunate' and said
associating the representatives of civil society in the drafting
of Lokpal Bill, would in no way, compromise the jurisdiction of
the government and parliament.
On the allegations against them, he said: "Being a friend of
Bhushans and as I know them, I am inclined to believe both of
them. Frankly I can't say anything about the CD. It is technical
matter and could be left to the experts."
On the allotment of two farm houses to Shanti Bhushan and his
other son Jayant Bhushan, Sachar says it was an open-ended matter
and many people got the farm houses. "They were not given any
preferential treatment. They got it in the second list. If the
process of allotment was wrong, then its validity could be gone
into," he said.
He said that the attack on the representatives of the civil
society was unnecessary and was an attempt to sidetrack the real
issue of a stringent Lokpal bill.
Some other lawyers were, however, more guarded in their response
or declined to comment.
Senior counsel S.B. Sanyal evaded the issue, saying: "I don't want
to express any opinion."
Asked her opinion, another woman lawyer and activist said: "I
don't have time at the moment. I am in the midst of a meeting."
Counsel Shekhar Naphade also declined to comment.
"I don't want to say anything. I don't know the facts. It is
allegation by one side and reply by the other. I don't want to go
into it," he said.
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