Big B gets clean chit in land row

The committee, headed by a sub-divisional magistrate, in its report submitted on Saturday, turned down the charges of forgery against Bachchan following which a complaint lodged by son of the Daulatpur village head was quashed, Superintendent of Police Alok Singh said on Sunday. The report said Bachchan had only proposed to donate two plots in Daulatpur village to the gram samaj. “As the process to donate plots to the gram sabha was not completed, it cannot be proved that plot numbers 711 and 793 were to be transferred to the gram samaj,” the report said.

As the village head gave her consent to take the land in donation without the approval of land management committee of the district administration, the entire process was “null and void”, it said. “The committee in its inquiry found that the allegation of fraud against Bachchan was baseless,” one official said.

Two days after the complaint was lodged against Bachchan, his former representative Vinay Shukla had said the land to be donated to the gram sabha was by “mistake” included in the gift deed towards a foundation for construction of a college for his daughter-in-law Aishwarya.

Shukla had said on coming to know the error, Nishtha Foundation, on the request of Bachchan, had requested the administration to do the needful but Avnindra Singh, son of Daulatpur village gram pradhan, Rajkumari Singh, lodged a complaint with the police.

Ash to campaign for children’s aid

On her 36th birthday on Sunday, Aishwarya Rai has been named the first goodwill ambassador for Smile Train, an NGO that works worldwide for children with cleft lip, reports IANS from New Delhi.