Plea in HC for CBI probe into bribery charges against Himachal

An application has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking interim direction to the CBI to probe allegations of corruption and bribery against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in his current tenure.
The application has been filed by NGO Common Cause before the court of Chief Justice N V Ramana seeking court-monitored CBI inquiry into allegations of money laundering, amassing disproportionate assets and criminal misconduct against Singh during his tenure as Union Steel Minister. Singh has refuted the allegations.
The application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan said during the pendency of the PIL, it came to know that the Himachal Pradesh government had allotted a hydel power project at Sai Kothi to M/s Venture Energy & Technology Pvt. Ltd. On June 14, 2002.

"The said company defaulted in the execution of the project and the state government granted several extensions to the company. After Singh became the Chief Minister, his government granted it a further extension of 10 months. The decision was made on extraneous considerations," it said.
It alleged that "Singh and his wife had received unsecured loan of Rs 3.90 crore from the director of the firm that he had favoured by granting an undue extension despite repeated defaults."
The application says Arun Jaitley, the leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha has written a letter to the Prime Minister regarding these charges.

On November 27 last year, the high court had asked CBI to file a status report on the on the action taken by it regarding the corruption allegations against Singh raised in the PIL after the agency said it was conducting an inquiry into the matter.
The PIL, filed against Centre, CVC, CBI, Singh and Directorate General of Income tax has alleged that he made a large amount of money through dubious sources and showed it as agricultural income to gain exemption from income tax and despite complaints to the Centre, CBI and CVC, no action has been taken so far which shows malafide on their part.