JOIN USIn an unprecedented move, the CBI on Saturday raided Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s official residence in Shimla and 12 of his other premises after booking him in a corruption case.
Officials swooped down on Singh’s residence on a day when his second daughter was getting married, inviting strong reactions from his Congress party which dubbed the act as “a shocking example of politics stooping to its lowest ebb.”
The BJP sought Singh’s resignation, accusing him of being “a symbol of corruption”.
A CBI team reached Singh’s Shimla residence immediately after he, along with relatives, drove down to Sankat Mochan temple at 7:30 am for solemnising his daughter’s marriage.
Simultaneously, separate teams landed at his official residence in the national capital, his son Vikramaditya Singh’s farm house in Mehrauli and other residences in Shimla and Rampur.
The CBI had said Singh (81) and his family had acquired disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 6.1 crore between 2009 and 2011, when he was the Union minister for steel and micro, small and medium enterprises in the UPA regime.
Singh was forced to resign in 2012 following allegations that he took bribes from a steel company after the Income Tax department bumped into a diary of payoffs having an entry in the name of “VBS”. It was stated that VBS stood for Virbhadra Singh.
His wife Pratibha Singh, LIC agents Anand Chauhan and Chunni Lal Chauhan were among the others booked by the CBI on charges that the veteran Congress leader invested the Rs 6.1 crore in life insurance policies with the help of the two agents.
Interestingly, in early 2014, the CBI had stated before the Delhi High Court that it had no evidence to book a regular case, but left it to the Income Tax department to do what it wants. The agency had even questioned the chief minister early last year.