CBI registers case against HP CM Virbhadra Singh, his wife and associates
CBI registers case against HP CM Virbhadra Singh, his wife and associates
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, CBI gave him a clean chit in the matter a year later.
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.
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
This FIR was the outcome of a preliminary enquiry which revealed that then Union Minister while serving during 2009-2012 had allegedly accumulated assets worth Rs 6.03 crore (approx.) in his name and in the name of his family members which were found to be disproportionate to his known sources of income. The other FIR named persons had allegedly abetted then Union Minister in committing the offence.
It was further alleged that then Union Minister for Steel & MSME had invested his unaccounted income in LIC policies in his name and in the name of his wife & other family members through a private person by showing the same as agricultural income.
This was done by creation of a MoU purportedly dated 15.06.2008 for maintenance of an apple orchard, with the said private person for a period of three years. The private person had allegedly deposited Rs.5 crore cash (approx.) in his own bank account and debited the same through cheques for purchasing various LIC policies in their names.
Later, then Union Minister allegedly attempted to legitimize the same as agricultural income by filing revised ITRs in 2012. The agricultural income as claimed by him in his revised ITRs was not found to be tenable. The then Union Minister had allegedly accumulated other assets disproportionate to known sources of income.
Searches have been conducted today at 13 different locations in Shimla & Solan (Himachal Pradesh) and New Delhi. During searches, incriminating documents, property papers, investments, hard disks, pen drives etc. have been recovered.
TOI reported that Income tax officers discovered in 2008-09, when Parwanoo mandi was not operational, Virbhadra had first showed his apple income as Rs 7.35 lakh but later revised it to Rs 2.21 crore. The overall revision of agricultural income for three years by him was Rs 6.5 crore from just Rs 47.5 lakh.
Rs 6.5 crore money trail between Singh, Chauhan and Chunni Lal, I-T also found that even the addresses where these apples were further sent by UAA are either incomplete or do not exist. These addresses belong to 13 unknown companies spread across Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Kerala.
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Sunday, September 27, 2015
Tags – Himachal Chief Minister Scam Apple LIC FIR