DA case: Himachal CM grilled for nine hours by ED

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was on Thursday questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for nine hours in connection with the Disproportionate Assets (DA) case against him.

The Chief Minister's questioning began after he reached the Enforcement Directorate's office in Jamnagar House at 12 p.m. which stretched over a long period of nine hours.

According to sources, around 100 questions were asked by the officials, out of which Singh was unable to answer a few. However, he told the officials that he will reply to these questions later.

Singh was summoned so as to record his statement in the case and to confront him with some documents the agency has seized and recovered.

Last week, Singh had sent a communication to the agency stating his reasons for not being able to appear before it all this while and had sought a new date from it, after which the new summons were issued for today.

The Enforcement Directorate had yesterday refused to give any assurance in the Delhi High Court that it will not arrest Singh when he appears before it.

The submission was made before Justice R.K. Gauba by the Enforcement Directorate during the hearing of Singh's plea for quashing of the money laundering proceedings against him.

The Enforcement Directorate's summons have come close on the heels of filing of a charge sheet by the CBI against Mr Singh, his wife and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs. 10 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The agency had summoned Singh earlier also, but then he had excused himself stating he had official commitments.

The ED had already questioned his wife Pratibha and son Vikramaditya in connection with the case.

It had filed a case under the anti-money laundering law against Singh, his family members and others after taking cognisance of a complaint filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in this regard in September 2015.