The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his wife and associates for allegedly amassing assets worth over Rs. 6 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
On Saturday, the agency conducted searches at 13 places in Delhi, Shimla and Solan in Himachal Pradesh. Early in the morning, an 18-member CBI team raided the Chief Minister’s Shimla residence after he and his family members left for his daughter’s marriage.
“The case has been registered against the former Union Minister, his wife Pratibha Singh, his associates Anand and Chunni Lal Chauhan on allegations of possessing disproportionate assets,” said a CBI official.
The case is the outcome of a preliminary enquiry instituted in June into the allegations, which revealed that while serving as Minister of Steel during 2009-2012, he allegedly amassed unaccounted assets worth Rs. 6.03 crore in his name and that of his family members.
Anand and Chunni Lal allegedly assisted the former Union Minister in committing the offence, according to the agency.
LIC policies
The CBI probe revealed that Mr. Singh had allegedly invested his unaccounted income in LIC polices through a private person by showing the amount as agricultural income. Insurance policies were also purchased in the name of his wife and other family members.
“This was done by creation of a memorandum of understanding dated June 15, 2008, for maintenance of an apple orchard for three years. The private person allegedly deposited Rs.5 crore in cash in his own bank account and debited the same through cheques for purchasing LIC policies in question,” said the official.
Later, the then Union Minister allegedly attempted to legitimise the said transaction as agricultural income by filing a revised income-tax return in 2012. “The income as claimed by him in his revised income-tax return was not found to be tenable,” the official said, adding that the agency had seized investment and property papers, hard disks and pen drives during searches.
The CBI has also identified a property located in the posh Greater Kailash area of Delhi purportedly registered in the name of the Chief Minister’s wife.
In 2013, the CBI had initiated a preliminary inquiry into bribery allegations against Mr. Singh, during his tenure as Himachal Chief Minister in 2002. However, the agency virtually gave him a clean chit in the matter a year later.
A shock for Virbhadra
Kanwar Yogendra writes from Shimla:
Mr. Singh, who was waiting for guests for the wedding of his younger daughter on Saturday morning was surprised when he was visited by the CBI and ED sleuths, instead. The marriage of Chief Minister’s daughter was to be held in a local temple. The CBI and ED officials, who had come in five cars bearing Punjab and Chandigarh registrations, began the operation at 7.45 a.m. Some of his Cabinet colleagues and close friends, who came for the wedding lunch, came to know of the search operations after seeing the media. “The CBI should have postponed the raids by a day at least,” said senior Minister Vidya Stokes, who was also invited for the lunch.
Interestingly, his entire Cabinet colleagues on Friday issued a statement anticipating registration of a case against him and had blamed the Central government for trying to destabilise a democratically elected government in the State.
Some of the Ministers convened a press conference on Saturday claiming it an unprecedented act of revenge by the Central government against a sitting Chief Minister.
Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said Mr. Singh should resign on moral grounds.
