Vijay Kumar Shukla, the man who carries Amitabh Bachchan's power of attorney and whom the Bollywood icon has accused of forging the document to purchase farmland in Uttar Pradesh, Monday flatly denied that he had misused the film star's papers in any manner.

Blaming it all on the media, Shukla told here: "Let me tell you Bachchan-ji has not accused me of anything. It is simply a creation of the media that I was responsible for misrepresenting facts and for giving him a fake document showing government allotment of some agricultural land in his name."

Shukla, who was in Lucknow in connection with some "personal work", claimed: "In fact, Bachchan-ji has defended me by ruling out even the remotest possibility of my taking him for a ride."

Bachchan, under attack for purchasing farmland in Barabanki district by professing to be a farmer, had written to the Juhu police station in Mumbai complaining that Shukla had approached him professing to be his fan and said that he owned land in Barabanki. Shukla had sold him some land and later on it was discovered that the man was a fake, he said in his complaint.

Armed with a copy of the complaint sent by Bachchan to the inspector in charge of Juhu Police Station in connection with the 'power of attorney' issued to him, Shukla sought to emphasise that the 'Big B' had himself given him a clean chit.

Top officials in Lucknow, however, view the move as Bachchan's last-ditch effort to wriggle out of the "farmer" controversy, that has landed not only him but also his actress-turned MP wife Jaya Bachchan in a political mess.

The 2. 5 bigha ( about 70, 000 sq ft) land belonging to Daulatpur gram sabha ( village council) in Barabanki district, about 40 km from here, was entered in the superstar's name in gross violation of laws of the state.

Apparently, Bachchan's idea behind the allotment was to safeguard the purchase of a six-hectare farm in Pune district of Maharashtra, where land revenue laws do not permit ownership of agricultural property by anyone other than a "farmer".

An obliging Uttar Pradesh administration under Mulayam Singh Yadav, a close friend, favoured Bachchan with a land record entry to give him the status of a "farmer". A certificate was promptly issued, allegedly under directions of the Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, who enjoys close proximity to Bachchan.

Upon an inquiry initiated by the Maharashtra administration, Uttar Pradesh officials found the entry to have been forged.

"I had no reason to disbelieve or to suspect his ( Shukla's) bonafides. Later, in various media reports, it has been alleged that the certificate shown to me by Mr. Vijay Kumar Shukla was obtained by improper means," Bachchan has now stated in his complaint to the Mumbai police.

"It appears that he has also wrongly given my address as 17, Clive Road, Allahabad in certain proceedings, contrary to the address as mentioned in the power of attorney itself, which was known to him as he had visited me here," it points out.

"It appears that these acts are offences punishable under IPC ( Indian Penal Code). Kindly register a FIR and investigate the matter," the film star's complaint said.

According to Shukla,"Bachchan had sounded him about the complaint beforehand and he had made it clear that he was doing so because of persistent hounding by the media."

He claimed,"He has nothing against me."