Court to consider charge sheet against Himachal CM on April 7

A court here on Thursday fixed April 7 to consider the CBI charge sheet against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others in a disproportionate assets case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the charge sheet last Friday in the court of Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal.

The matter was fixed for April 7 as scrutiny of documents could not be completed on Thursday.

Besides Virbhadra Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, Life Insurance Corporation agent Anand Chauhan, his associate Chunni Lal, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Lawan Kumar Roach, Vakamullah Chandrashekhara and Ram Prakash Bhatia have been charge-sheeted in the case.

The CBI had booked the accused on charge of abetment to crime and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI had registered the case on September 23, 2016, after a preliminary inquiry found that Virbhadra Singh, during his term as Union Steel Minister from 2009 to 2012, allegedly accumulated assets worth Rs 6.03 crore, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The Himachal Chief Minister had on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order that rejected his plea to quash the FIR in the case.

Virbhadra Singh, a veteran Congress leader, has challenged the March 31 Delhi High Court order that also vacated a Himachal Pradesh High Court order of October 1, 2015, restraining the CBI from arresting, interrogating or filing a charge sheet in the case without court permission.

--IANS

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