Buta to meet PM, move court over son's case

New Delhi: Former union minister Buta Singh on Saturday said he would approach court over the corruption charges against his son Sarabjot alias Sweety Singh while maintaining that he would not step down as chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.

Addressing a press conference at his residence in the Capital, Buta Singh reiterated that the charges were a "conspiracy" against him and his family. He said he would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apprise him of the "facts" of the case.

"I am a chairman of a constitutional forum, why would I resign.... I do not know what transpired between him (the other accused in the case) and my son. Under pressure he (his son) would have made it (the confession)," Buta Singh told reporters.

His son Sweety Singh was arrested on Friday and remanded to police custody by a Mumbai court till August 5 after he was caught allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 1crore from Nashik-based contractor Ramraj Patil to facilitate the withdrawal of a case against Patil for not paying his Dalit workers.

Later the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed Sweety Singh had confessed that his father Buta Singh was aware of him accepting the bribe from Patil.

"I will not jump into this. The commission will go to higher courts with the complaint that the commission's functioning is being intervened.... The CBI has acted on the complaint of an accused but not the commission," Buta Singh added.

Earlier in the day, the CBI searched Sweety Singh's house in south Delhi and found three unlicensed pistols and 38 cartridges. A case under the Arms Act has been registered against him at the Nizamuddin police station.

"Following Sweety Singh's interrogation, a CBI team reached his house in south Delhi today (Saturday) morning and conducted searches. During the search three unlicensed pistols and cartridges were recovered," a senior CBI official said, requesting anonymity.

However, Buta Singh refuted the charges. "The licences are there and only he (Sweety) knows where they are," he said.

A CBI official in Mumbai had earlier said that Buta Singh may also be questioned in connection with the corruption charges against his son.