CBI allowed to retain seized documents in Virbhadra's DA case

Special CBI Judge also took on record CBI's compliance report of search warrants issued by the court

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CBI was today allowed by a Delhi court to retain the documents seized during searches conducted at the residences of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in a disproportionate assets case lodged against him.

Special CBI Judge S C Rajan also took on record the CBI's compliance report of search warrants issued by the court.

"Search warrants report be taken on record and documents required for further investigation are directed to be retained," the judge said.

During the brief hearing, senior public prosecutor S C Sharma moved an application seeking permission to retain the seized documents for further investigation.

He said several documents were seized during the searches conducted by the agency and these documents were required by the CBI for further investigation in the case.

On September 28, Singh had moved the court seeking directions to CBI to supply copy of FIR lodged against him and others in an alleged disproportionate assets case. However, he withdrew the plea two days later.

CBI had conducted searches at the official residence of 81-year-old Singh in Shimla and at 10 other places in connection with the case on September 26, the day his daughter was getting married.

Searches were also carried out at his official residence in Delhi, his two houses in Shimla and Rampur and a farm house in Mehrauli in South Delhi which is in the name of his son Vikramaditya Singh.

CBI had registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE), which was converted into a regular case, against Singh and his family members for allegedly amassing wealth of Rs 6.1 crore, alleging it was disproportionate to their known sources of income during 2009-11 when he was serving as Union Minister of Steel in the UPA government.

The agency had filed an FIR in a designated court here under Prevention of Corruption Act, naming Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, LIC agent Anand Chauhan and Chunni Lal Chauhan.

CBI has claimed that during this period, Singh, a six- time Chief Minister, invested Rs 6.1 crore in life insurance policies in his and his family members' names through Chauhan.