Court to hear arguments on framing of charges against Virbhadra Singh on Oct 22

A Delhi court Wednesday said it will commence hearings on framing of charges against former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minster Virbhadra Singh, his wife and others in connection with the disproportionate assets case on October 22.

The CBI has registered the case against Singh and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known source of income when he was the Union Minister in the UPA government.

Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj decided to commence the arguments on the framing of the charges after the CBI submitted that it has supplied all the documents, filed with the charge sheet, to the accused.

The charge sheet running into over 500 pages claims that Singh had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate by 192 per cent of his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.

The final report, filed against nine people for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.

Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife Pratibha Singh, the report also arrayed LIC agent Anand Chauhan, Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia as accused.

After the charges are framed, trial will begin.

The matter was transferred by the Supreme Court from the Himachal Pradesh High Court to the Delhi High Court, which on April 6, 2016 had asked the CBI not to arrest Singh and had directed him to join the probe.

The CBI had approached the apex court against an order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court barring the agency from arresting Singh.

The apex court had transferred Singh's plea from Himachal Pradesh HC to Delhi HC, saying it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, but "simply" transferring the petition "in interest of justice and to save the institution (judiciary) from any embarrassment".