Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is facing a setback
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who has been facing allegations of corruption, suffered a setback today as the Centre told the Delhi High Court that a case of money laundering can be made out against him.
The Centre's statement came during a hearing on a petition by the NGO Common Cause, which alleges that despite sufficient evidence to prosecute Mr Singh, the CBI had been slow to take action.
Mr Singh, 79, who had been a chief minister since 2012, has been accused of money laundering, owning illegal assets and criminal misconduct during his tenure as Union steel minister. His income tax documents allegedly revealed that his earnings multiplied at the time. The Chief Minister claims that his income was from his apple orchards.
Today, the court asked the Income Tax department to submit Mr Singh's tax records and other documents within a week.
Mr Singh said the case against him was "politically motivated, a retaliation to what I am doing in Himachal Pradesh".
"Mr Dhumal (senior BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal ) and his son are pressurising the Union government and Mr Jaitley (finance minister Arun Jaitley) to act against me. (But) as long as Mr Modi is prime minister I don't think the Central Bureau of Investigation will be misused," he added.
Mr Dhumal, however, alleged that the previous Congress-led government at the Centre shielded him. "As long as the UPA government was at the Centre, Virbhadra Singh used his influence to slow down the investigation process," he said.
The petition also alleges that as chief minister, Mr Singh facilitated the allotment of the Sai Koti hydel power project to a private firm, which was given several extensions even though it defaulted on the execution.