Action against Himachal Pradesh CM vindictive: Congress
Three places in Delhi belonging to an alleged hawala dealer were raided
New Delhi: The FIR, filed with a designated court in Delhi under the Prevention of Corruption Act, named Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, LIC agent Anand Chauhan and Chunni Lal Chauhan (his brother) as accused in the disproportionate assets case.
Immediately after registering the FIR, agency sleuths swooped on the 81-year-old CM’s residence in Shimla within minutes of his leaving with relatives for Sankat Mochan temple at 7.30 am to solemnise the marriage of his second daughter. Four premises in Parwanoo, Himachal Pradesh, and in Shimla, of Anand Chauhan, believed to be close to Mr Singh, and of his brother Chunni Lal Chauhan were also searched.
Three places in Delhi belonging to an alleged hawala dealer were raided. Two places, in Shakur Basti and Lawrence Road in Delhi, of an associate were also searched by CBI officials. Searches were carried out at Mr Singh’s official residence in Delhi, at a farmhouse in Mehrauli in south Delhi which is in the name of his son, Vikramaditya Singh, and at Padam Palace, his ancestral home in Rampur, Himachal Pradesh.
Sources in the CBI said there were allegations that Mr Singh had invested his unaccounted income in LIC policies in his name and in the name of his wife and other family members through a private person by showing the same as agricultural income.
“This was done by creation of an MoU purportedly dated June 15, 2008 for maintenance of an apple orchard with the said private person (Chauhan) for a period of three years. The private person had allegedly deposited Rs 5 crore cash (approximately) in his own bank account and debited the same through cheques for purchasing various LIC policies in their names,” the sources claimed. They added that Mr Singh allegedly attempted to legitimise the same as agricultural income by filing revised IT returns in 2012.
While the Congress termed the action against Mr Singh as “highly vindictive”, the BJP demanded his resignation as chief minister. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hate agenda and political vendetta against Congress and its leaders has reached its zenith today with CBI raids at the residence of India’s seniormost chief minister.”
“Is it a democracy, or a dictatorship, or has emergency been declared and people are still not aware of it. An FIR is filed in the night and immediately there is a raid in the morning. Be it Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati or Mamata Banerjee, if you do not fall in line and cooperate in Parliament, the CBI is ready,” Mr Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, told reporters here. Mr Azad said the action has set a “shocking example of politics stooping to its lowest ebb” as the CBI moved in at a time when his daughter was getting married.