Centre destabilising my govt: Himachal CM

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday accused the Centre of “misusing” the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI to destabilise his duly elected government.

Singh’s salvo at the Centre came a day after ED officials attached a farmhouse in south Delhi owned by him reportedly using funds from shell companies.

“The Centre has been using its full might to harass and destabilise a duly elected government and the ED and the CBI are being misused to probe bogus charges against me, though nothing incriminating has been found so far,” the chief minister said in a statement.

Singh is expected to meet Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Ambika Soni on Wednesday. Singh rejected the allegations that the farmhouse in question was purchased through funds raised by shell companies. He said the purchase was made by M/s Maple, a company promoted by his son Vikramaditya.

The chief minister said that the CBI action against him was part of a “well-planned conspiracy” to tarnish his image ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

“While one expects political opponents to distort facts to derive political mileage, it is a matter of grave concern that a responsible government agency is behaving in such a manner and spreading a canard against me,” Singh said.

The chief minister claimed that officers with RSS background were used to “create false, baseless and fictitious survey reports and dossiers under instructions from the
I-T Department, Chandigarh”.

Now, HP to go after ex-CM Dhumal

As the ED tightens its noose around Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the state government is learnt to have issued directions to expeditiously probe “ill-gotten” properties of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, reports DHNS from Chandigarh. Politics in the hill state is expected to get bitter ahead of elections later this year. Dhumal is said to have properties across the country, including in Punjab, that are disproportionate to his known sources of income.