Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh was on Thursday questioned by the CBI in connection with its investigation into allegations that he had amassed assets disproportionate to his known sou
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh was on Thursday questioned by the CBI in connection with its investigation into allegations that he had amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income when he was a Union minister.
The CBI had started its inquiry after allegations that as a Union minister between 2009 and 2012, Mr Singh has accumulated assets worth nearly Rs 6.03 crore in his name and that of his family members.
The FIR filed in this connection names Mr Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh and two LIC agents, Anand Chauhan and Chunni Lal Chauhan. Mr Singh has consistently denied the allegations made against him.
According to the allegations being investigated by the CBI, Mr Singh had invested unaccounted income in LIC policies not only in his name but in those of his wife and other family members through a private person by showing the same as agricultural income. “This was done by the creation of an MoU purportedly dated June 15, 2008 for maintenance of an apple orchard with the said private person for a period of three years. The private person had allegedly deposited nearly Rs 5 crore in cash in his own bank account and debited the same through cheques for purchasing various LIC policies in their names,” the CBI had said.
The CBI also claimed that Mr Singh had allegedly attempted to legitimise the same as agricultural income by filing revised income-tax returns in 2012. “The agricultural income as claimed by him in his revised ITRs was not found to be tenable. The then Union minister had allegedly accumulated other assets disproportionate to known sources of income,” the CBI alleged.
