ED wants to grill Virbhadra’s wife

The Delhi high court was informed by the Enforcement Directorate that Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh needed to be further questioned in connection with a money laundering case against him.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Sanjay Jain told Justice Vipin Sanghi that Pratibha Singh did not have answers to several questions put to her during questioning on August 9 and some documents were also sought from her.

The ASG’s submission came after a lawyer appearing on behalf of Pratibha sought a passover as senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is representing her, was in the Supreme Court. The ASG said that instead of a passover, the matter can be heard on a later date as there was no urgency. The court then listed the matter for hearing on September 23.

The court was hearing Pratibha’s plea seeking a direction to ED not to take any coercive step against her in the wake of the arrest of an LIC agent in the case. On August 8, the ED had told the court that it had no intention as of now to arrest her and would inform the court beforehand in case of doing so.

On July 29, the court had asked the ED not to take any coercive step against her on August 9 when she appeared before it to record her statement. It had also said in case that if the ED wanted to further question her, it will have to give reasons.