Arun Jaitley attacks Sonia, Rahul Gandhi over Virbhadra Singh issue

New Delhi: Firing a fresh salvo, BJP questioned the 'silence' of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over corruption allegations against Virbhadra Singh on Sunday and dared the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister to agree to a CBI probe into the charges which he dubbed as politically motivated.

"The Congress Party and Virbhadra Singh have decided to brazen out the allegations of corruption. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will hide behind silence," Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said on his blog on Sunday.

Hitting back, Singh said that both Jaitley and former Chief Minister and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal had "deliberately suppressed relevant facts" in their press conferences to suit their "ulterior political motive".

"They have made selective opportunist disclosures and tried to mislead by twisting and concealing vital facts," Singh said dismissing the allegations levelled against him by them as as being "false, frivolous and fabricated".

"The accusations are preposterous and politically motivated," Singh said.

Noting that the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister has dared anyone to either lodge an FIR against him or to prove the allegations of corruption, Jaitley said that his letter to the CBI Director on December 29 in this regard constitutes an FIR.

"In order to investigate the same, the consent of the State Government under section 6 of the Delhi Special Police (Establishment) Act is required. "I dare the State Government of Himachal Pradesh to give its consent so that an investigation into these allegations can also take place," he said.

Jaitley's hard hitting remarks on the Congress leadership came amid indications that Congress has decided to fight out the issue backing Virbhadra Singh and dubbing the allegations as part of Opposition's conspiracy against him.

The BJP leader said two allegations against the Himachal Pradesh Chief Miniser is already being investigated by the CBI as per his understanding. It is the third allegation relating to his dealings with a power company which now requires to be "investigated and proved", Jaitley said.

He alleged that Singh, his family members and their company have received interest free loan from the promoter of a power company, which had transactions with the Himachal Government. The state government had at a given point of time passed orders favouring the company.

The BJP leader said that facts prima facie establish that the loaned money is used for buying shareholding in other group companies of the lender.

Singh said that these same charges have also been included in the PIL filed by AAP leader Prashant Bhushan in the Delhi High Court after the Himachal government initiated a case of illegal purchase of Tea Garden by him at Kandbari, Palampur in the name of Kumud Bhushan Educational Society, which he could not have purchased as there was total ban on selling of Tea Gardens and lands subservient to Tea industry in the State to non-agriculturists.

He wondered it was strange that Dhumal family, Bhushan and Jaitley were singing same old chorus, which smells of "connivance and conspiracy".

"Prashant Bhushan and Dhumal family are facing probes for their wrong doings, Jaitley is known in Himachal as an advocate of Dhumals having represented in HPCA case earlier," Singh said asking Jaitley the reason for his attempt at "bowling a googlie on behalf of Dhumal family".

"What special interest did Jaitley have in Dhumal and his family. Had he been paid as an advocate to stage the show on their call, was it a cricketeering company gesture or there was something deeper beneath as he had raised same issues and divulged same information as had been done by son of Dhumal in his five press conferences at Shimla." 

He said Jaitley and Dhumal were behaving like a complainant, prosecutor and a judge all unto himself and pleading, prosecuting and passing orders in a same stretch.

Rejecting all the allegations on him and his family members, Singh said that during the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh in October-November 2012, some national BJP leaders including Jaitley had levelled the same "wild and baseless accusations" about his Income Tax returns and alleged favours to Ispat Industry, which were totally baseless.

"Jaitley had not only illegally procured details of his income tax returns, which cannot be obtained even under RTI without the consent of the assessee, but had also shown them at a Press Conference in Shimla withholding parts of it to suit his party's political motive," he said.

Singh said the BJP was targeting him in "sheer desperation and frustration" as the ongoing probes on the basis of charge sheet submitted by the Congress Party against the "misrule and misdeeds" of the previous BJP Government in the State were gaining momentum.

"The charge sheet contained serious charges of corruption and land scams against Dhumal, his family members, ministers, others and high profile cases of land deals and change of land use involving Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth, Prashant Bhushan's Trust, HPCA's hotel, Bemloe construction, Annandale area," the Chief Minister said.

He added that there was "imminent involvement of Prem Kumar Dhumal and his family in large number of cases" including a construction project at Shimla. He also alleged that the Dhumal government indulged in "illegal phone tapping" of their political opponents, their own ministers, officers and media persons, which is a serious scam.

"All the acts of omission and commission enlisted in the charge sheet are now being probed and BJP leaders are feeling the heat of it. Now, fearing legal action for their misdeeds BJP leaders were indulging in malicious propaganda and mudslinging against him and his family members to distract public attention from their own wrongdoings," he said.

With regard to raising personal loan by him from Vakamulla Chandrashekhar, Singh claimed that, being a family friend, personal loan was raised from him by cheque on payment of interest.

"This was a legal transaction which is permissible and the loan along with interest is being repaid through cheque to him in instalments. There should not be any objection to anyone for such a transaction. Moreover, no favour was ever shown to Chandrashekhar by him or the Congress Government headed by him," Singh asserted.

The chief minister said that during the Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh in October-November 2012, senior BJP leaders including Arun Jaitley had levelled same "wild and baseless accusations" about his Income Tax returns and alleged favours to Ispat Industry, which were totally baseless.

Jaitley had not only "illegally" procured details of his income tax returns, which cannot be obtained even under RTI without the consent of the assesses, but had also shown them at a Press Conference in Shimla withholding parts of it to suit his party's political agenda, he said.

Dhumal government went out of the way to give precious government land worth Rs 200 crores at five places to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association headed by his son Anurag Thakur, MP and Government properties were "illegally demolished" to facilitate HPCA stadium at Dharamshala, Singh alleged.

The chief minister claimed that there was likely involvement of Dhumal family in money laundering and benami land transactions besides allegations of disproportionate assets and income and as all these acts of omission and commission enlisted in the charge sheet are now being probed, the BJP leaders were feeling the heat of it.

Fearing legal action for their "misdeeds", BJP leaders were indulging in malicious propaganda and mud-slinging against him and his family members to distract public attention from their own wrong doings, he said.

On the issue of personal loan by him Vakamulla Chandrashekhar, Singh clarified that a loan of Rs 2.40 crore was taken by him and that of Rs 1.50 crore by his wife Pratibha Singh during July 2011 to November 2011 out of which he had given Rs 1.20 crore to his son Vikramaditya Singh by cheque.

During this period, there was BJP government in the state and the question of his benefitting the person did not arise. He said that his family members had purchased shares in Tarini Infrastructure Ltd. and claimed that these shares purchased as primary shares in 2009 are fully paid up and approved in 2010-11.

All requisite rules and regulations have been complied while applying for shares and there was "no violation/irregularity/illegality whatsoever" in subscribing to the equity shares or M/s Tarini infrastructure Ltd., he emphasised. Accusing Dhumal and Jaitley of deliberately suppressing the relevant facts, Singh said that they made selective disclosures and tried to mislead by twisting and concealing vital facts.

Dhumal told reporters here that Virbhadra Singh was resorting to "lies and half truths" about the charges of corruption.

Right from loans raised from an individual Vakamulla Chandershekhar, purchase of shares in his company, floating of another company "maple" by Virbhardra's son and daughter with major financing from Vakamulla and discrepancies in original and revised Income tax returns for years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, Virbhadra has been concealing the facts and his unconvincing explanations are further confounding the confusion.

Asserting that the BJP government had done no favour to Vakamulla's company by giving extension for 17 MW Sai Koti hydropower project in Chamba, Dhumal said that Virbhadra was making a wrong statement that the project was restored on the directions of the Supreme Court and said that the apex court had only asked the government to reconsider the project which did not mean re-allotment.

Dhumal said that it was strange that the proposal to restore the project was rejected thrice by the government but it was again taken to the Cabinet and re-allotted to Company of Vakamulla.

He alleged that the share purchased by Chief Minister's wife Pratibha Singh, son Vikramaditya and daughter Aparajita in Tarini Infrastructure - owned by daughter of Vakamulla - were not shown in the election affidavit by Singh and his wife and now the chief minister is pleading that it was a mistake on the part of his lawyer who did not mention the shares in the affidavit.

Dhumal also accused the chief minister of "unnecessarily" linking the charges against him with vigilance inquiries into alleged irregularities committed by HPCA and there was no link between the two.

The BJP leader accused Virbhadra of "beating about the bush" and said that instead of dragging HPCA into controversy, he should reply to the charges levelled against him. He demanded resignation of Virbhadra Singh.

Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Cabinet on Sunday backed Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and asked the BJP leaders to approach the Lokayukta for a probe into the charges.

In joint statement, the cabinet ministers rejected the charges levelled by the BJP as 'false' and said that if there is even an iota of truth in the allegations, the BJP leaders should approach the HP Lokayukta, headed by a former Supreme Court Judge. The ministers asked the BJP to realise that all the propaganda being done by P K  Dhumal and his family to divert the attention from his wrongdoings and that of his family members.