FIR against Amar Singh, wife for alleged financial fraud

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and his wife Pankaja Kumari Singh have been booked for alleged financial fraud amounting to about Rs 500 crore, a senior police officer said here on Friday.

An FIR was lodged yesterday at Babupurwa police station in Kanpur, accusing the SP general secretary and his wife of amalgamating companies for converting black money into white, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal said.

The name of actor Amitabh Bachchan has also figured in the 14-page complaint as director of one of the companies, the ADG said. The complaint alleged that between 2003-2008, Singh and his wife had allegedly amalgamated their companies with other holdings and had amassed nearly Rs 500 crore in the process, DIG (Kanpur) Neera Rawat said.

The complainant has been identified as one Shiv Kant Tiwari. The companies named in the FIR included Energy Development Company Limited, EDCL Power Limited, Pankaja Art and Credit Limited, Sarvottam Cap Limited, EDCL Infrastructure Limited and Eastern India Company, all owned or run by the couple.

"The complainant alleged that small utilities were amalgamated in these companies. For instance, he claimed that 25 companies were amalgamated in Sarvottam Cap Limited," the ADG said.

"The FIR has been lodged under various sections of IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Laundering Act," he said.