Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh and others on Monday appeared before Additional Sessions Judge Virender Kumar Goyal in Delhi and applied for bail in a disproportionate assets case.
The judge issued notice to the CBI and posted their bail applications on May 29 for arguments.
Taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by CBI, the judge, on May 9, summoned them to appear in the court on Monday.
The other accused are LIC agent Anand Chauhan, Tarini Infrastructure managing director Vakamulla Chandrashekhar, Universal Apples Associates (Himachal Pradesh) owner Chunni Lal Chauhan, Prem Raj, Lavan Kumar Roach, Ram Prakash Bhatia and Joginder Singh Ghalta.
The CBI has accused Mr. Singh of amassing assets worth Rs. 10.30 crore between May 2009 and June 2012, when he was the Union Steel Minister. It alleged that the LIC agent helped Mr. Singh invest unaccounted money in life insurance policies.
In his annual returns, Mr. Singh later showed the additional amount as income from the sale of apples from his orchard. An MoU was later prepared showing the LIC agent as the orchard manager. Mr. Raj and Mr. Roach were shown as witnesses.