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NEW DELHI, Jul 4: Actor Amitabh Bachchan called the shots in New Delhi when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. Such was the clout of the Bollywood superstar that he got then Union Finance Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh removed from the finance ministry. The startling revelations are recorded in VP Singh's recently-released memoir Manzil Se Jyada Safar.

The Big B got it done because there were apprehensions that the finance ministry had hired an investigative agency, Faifax, in Europe to investigate the properties that Amitabh's younger brother Ajitabh Bachchan had allegedly bought in Switzerland. It was also rumoured that Ajitabh could be the recipient of a portion of Bofors money.

VP, in his book, says that Andaman and Nicobar Islands was a place that Rajiv Gandhi used to visit. "We heard that Amitabh Bachchan landed there and poisoned Rajiv Gandhi's ears. The decision to remove me from the finance ministry was taken there only," the former PM writes.

"This was proved from the fact that after I was shifted to the defence ministry, Rajiv Gandhi called me one day and asked whether I had hired an investigative agency, Fairfax, which would gather information about the properties of some persons who are based in Europe. I told him that I had no idea and he should ask Bhure Lal, director, Enforcement. It would not be fair on my part as defence minister to ask for information from a director in the finance ministry. I know that Rajiv Gandhi had called Bhure Lal and had a 35-minute meeting with him. Rajiv Gandhi appeared satisfied with the meeting, but a few days after that at 11 pm Bhure Lal was shifted from the enforcement directorate. Bhure Lal had made it clear to the then Prime Minister that no investigative agency was hired in Europe," he writes.

VP further links these developments to a report in a newspaper that Ajitabh Bachchan had bought a bungalow in Switzerland. It had raised eyebrows that how a person who had gone to Switzerland on a tourist visa get so much foreign currency to buy property there. The author of VP's memoirs, Ram Bahadur Rai, said that in those days the Bofors issue was much in focus and it was rumoured that Ajitabh, through Amitabh Bachchan, could have influenced the deal and was a recipient of the kickback.