Jaitley should place evidence against Virbhadra Singh in public domain: Congress

Reacting to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley's allegation against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the Congress on Monday said the BJP has always been on a witch-hunt against the latter and said if Jaitley has some evidence, then he should place it in public domain

Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said, "In the past, the BJP government in Himachal instituted a large number of inquiries against Virbhadra Singh, and at the end, nothing came out of those inquiries. So, just allegations against the chief minister don't mean much."

"But if there is some wrongdoing, then they should be taken to court. If he has some evidence, then he should put it out in public domain. Let's wait for the Prime Minister to take cognisance of the evidence presented by him," he added.

Meanwhile BJP leader Anurag Thakur demanded the resignation of Virbhadra Singh saying, "This is an open and shut case. He should immediately resign from the post of Chief Minister. If the Congress has any shame, then it should take action against him. On one side they talk about the Lokpal Bill and on the other side they make such a corrupt person the CM of a state. This shows their dubious character."

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Earlier today, BJP leader Arun Jaitley accused Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of being involved in cases three cases of corruption one of which involved the owner of a private company.

"In 2002, hydropower projects were allotted to a few companies in Himachal Pradesh. Out of them Venture Energy and Technology Private Limited defaulted in the project execution, due to which their contract was cancelled. Later, they were given an extension but the project was never made," said Jaitley

"The owner of the company Vanshri Vakamula Chandrashekar got another extension, when Virbhadra Singh became the CM again a year back. Singh got an extension of ten months from the cabinet for Chandrashekar, immediately after which Mr. Chandrashekar paid Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh a sum of one crore fifty thousand and two crores respectively," he said.

He further said that the same money was invested in a new company opened by Mr. Chandrashekar called Taarini Enterprise Private Limited, through which, Singh's wife, his son and daughter became its shareholders.

"I can almost say without a fear of contradiction, that, in the last few years the kind of corruption cases I have seen, there is nothing more of an open and shut case than this.

Everything is on record and I have also written a detailed letter with voluminous documents of all these incidents," he said.