Bhushans won't resign, credence should not be paid to malicious campaign: Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Leading lights of the Jan Lokpal movement came to the rescue of the beleaguered Bhushans on Thursday . Drafting committee member Arvind Kejriwal and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi issued a statement, saying credence should not be paid to the “malicious campaign” , and nobody would resign from the panel. The assertion came amid reports that another drafting committee member Justice Santosh Hegde had said he is considering opting out of the panel of which Kejriwal denied any knowledge.

“We have already moved a PIL in the Supreme Court asking for an objective inquiry into the allegations. I have myself studied the documents, and there was no discretionary quota out of which the Bhushans got farmland in UP. I am planning to write to both the Prime Minster and the Chief Justice of India asking for a probe into this, and they can subject all of us to any other scrutiny they deem fit. But, I appeal to everybody not to derail the process of drafting the Lokpal bill.

If the probe finds the Bhushans are at fault, let there be action against them,” Kejriwal said. Bedi said, “I appeal to the Bhushans to put up with this in national interest.” The Bhushans have been in the eye of the storm ever since reports in some sections of the media emerged on Wednesday that former law minister and co-chairman of the joint drafting panel of Lokpal , Shanti Bhushan, and his son Jayant received two out of-turn 10,000 sq m plots in Noida from the Mayawati government sometime ago at highly subsidized rates.

Prashant asked me not to support Soumitra Sen’s impeachment: Amar Singh

Continuing with his campaign against the Bhushan duo, Amar Singh claimed that Prashant Bhushan had committed to help him in court cases if he did not sign on the impeachment plea of Calcutta high court judge Soumitra Sen. Singh said the lawyer telephoned him and asked him to not sign the petition initiated by Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat.

When he reminded Prashant that his father was contesting against him in court to make the illegally tapped telephone conversations public, Prashant allegedly promised to reconsider it if he did not sign on Sen’s impeachment.