CBI court hears disproportionate assets case against ex-HP CM Virbhadra Singh

A Delhi court on Thursday heard an alleged disproportionate assets case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others.

Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar slated the CBI and ED case for hearing on February 19 and 20 respectively.

Currently, the economic offenses watchdog has not framed charges in its case.

The matter was listed for prosecution witness, wherein 28 witnesses have already been examined by the court.

A witness, who was former Additional General Manager at a branch in the State Bank of India (SBI) in the national capital, was called and questioned over the bank account transaction of Vikramaditya Singh, son of Virbhadra Singh.

In April 2017, CBI had filed a charge-sheet against Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, and several others, in a case alleging corruption and possession of disproportionate assets.

Singh is accused of having caused a loss to the exchequer by misrepresenting unaccounted money as proceeds of apple sales, and amassing assets of over Rs 10 crore disproportionate to his income between 2009 and 2011 when he was a Union Minister.

The other seven accused are LIC agent Anand Chauhan, Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia.