The CBI filed a charge-sheet against Virbhadra Singh accusing him of amassing assets worth Rs 10 crore.
In keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'zero tolerance' policy against corruption, a bunch of senior Congress leaders like Virbhadra Singh, the 82-year-old Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, former Haryana Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and others including, RJD supremo Lalu Yadav, Delhi health minister Satyender Kumar Jain have been called for questioning, their properties raided and corruption cases filed against by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this year.
They are among 14 top politicians who have remained under the radar of the investigative agency for amassing properties and hundreds of crores more than they could account for.
Minister of State Department of Personnel and Training, Jitender Singh, told the Rajya Sabha that they have registered corruption cases against 14 politicians in the first six months this year. The figure has jumped more than 100 per cent since last year when only six politicians were booked in various corruption cases, he said.
Of the 6,414 cases under trial, 115 politicians are currently facing trial, he added.
The agency has registered a total of 339 corruption cases against 1,161 persons who were investigated till the end of June this year. Of these 487 happen to be public servants. Last year, however, the CBI had registered 673 corruption cases against 2,842 persons. Of these 1,451 were public servants, he added.
The number of politicians who were booked in various corruption cases in 2015 stood at 21.
In April this year, the CBI filed a charge-sheet against Virbhadra Singh accusing him of amassing assets worth Rs 10 crore that it alleged was much more than what he could have honestly earned during his tenure as Union minister in the UPA regime.
Mr Hooda has been charged with alleged irregularities in the acquisition of 400 acres of land in Haryana's Manesar and nearby areas in which farmers were said to be cheated to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore. In the second case against him, he was charged with allotment of a plot in Panchkula to Associate Journals Limited (AJL), the publisher of the National Herald newspaper which is owned by the Gandhis.
Lalu Yadav and his son Tejashwi, Bihar's former Deputy Chief Minister, were charged with corruption following raids at a dozen places including their home in Patna in connection with a land scam.
There is a CBI probe against Mr Rawat for offering bribes to rebel Congress MLAs to support him during the floor test in April last year.
A number of top Trinamool Congress leaders including Sudip Bandopadhyay are under scrutiny in three major cases -- Rs 2,500-crore Saradha Ponzi case, Rs 17,000-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam and the Narada sting operation case.
Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram and also a Congress member, is being probed in corruption and foreign exchange violation cases. Several AAP ministers and legislators are also being questioned by the CBI.