HP CM Virbhadra fails to keep ED date; agency issues fresh summons

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Thursday did not appear before the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case prompting the agency to issue a fresh summons to him.

Singh has now been asked to appear before the Investigating Office on April 20, officials said. The fresh summons was issued under relevant provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The agency had, earlier this week, issued summons to Singh for personal appearance for today and in order to question him and record his statement in the money laundering case registered on the basis of a CBI FIR charging him of amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Singh is facing probe by CBI and ED on amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income during 2009-11 when he was Union Power Minister. According to the CBI, Singh had amassed disproportionate assets worth Rs 10.30 crore during 2009-11.

On April 3, the ED had attached a Rs 27.29 crore-worth farmhouse in south Delhi purchased by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, whose "funding came through shell companies" floated by an industrialist.

The total attachment by the ED in connection with its money laundering probe against Singh now stands at Rs 35.22 crore, the first being in March 2016 when assets worth Rs 7.93 crore that included a south Delhi flat were seized.

The ED had in July last year made the first arrest in the case after taking LIC agent Anand Chauhan into custody. Chauhan was accused of investing Singh's money in life insurance policies and help him launder money. The money was invested in insurance policies claiming this money to be his agricultural income.