Court directs CBI to give documents to HP CM Virbhadra Singh

A special court today directed the CBI to hand over certain documents to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others in connection with a nearly Rs 10 crore disproportionate assets case against him.
Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal passed the directions after the advocate for Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, and others, submitted that they have not received various documents filed along with the charge sheet.
The couple, who have not been arrested so far, and other accused persons -- Universal Apple Associate owner Chunni Lal Chauhan, stamp paper vendor Joginder Singh Ghalta, Managing Director of Tarani Infrastructure Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, and co-accused Lawan Kumar Roach, Prem Raj and Ram Prakash Bhatia -- were present before the court during the day's proceedings.

The charge sheet also names as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who was arrested in the case and is currently in judicial custody. He was produced before the court from jail.
The court had granted them bail on May 29 after they appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them by the court.
The court had on May 8 summoned them after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI.

The CBI charge sheet, running into over 500 pages having the statements of around 225 witnesses and containing 442 documents, has claimed that Singh had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate to his total income during his tenure as a Union minister.

Chauhan was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the disproportionate assets case.
The matter was transferred by the Supreme Court to the Delhi High Court, which on April 6, 2016, had asked the CBI not to arrest Singh and directed him to join the probe.
On November 5 last year, the apex court had transferred Singh's plea from the Himachal Pradesh High Court to the Delhi High Court, saying it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, but "simply" transferring the petition "in the interest of justice and to save the institution (judiciary) from any embarrassment".