The BJP, which has made fresh allegations of graft against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for favouring a power company, today complained to the Election Commission. "The chief minister and his MP wife have wilfully suppressed important information before elections... They have hidden important facts which are worth crores of rupees," BJP leader Anurag Thakur said today. Mr Singh was in Delhi today and met Ambika Soni, the Congress in-charge in Himachal Pradesh, to explain his position. He added that the allegations against him were "politically motivated."
Here are the top 10 developments in the story:
BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who is the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and marked a copy to CBI Director Ranjit Sinha making various allegations of corruption against Virbhadra Singh, including the accusation that he received bribes of over Rs. two crore from a private steel firm during his tenure as Union Steel Minister.
The BJP has also alleged that he awarded extensions for a hydel project in his state to a defaulting power company where his children and wife are shareholders. The CBI is reportedly examining the letter and, sources said, it does not rule out the possibility of questioning the 79-year-old chief minister.
Mr Singh has said that the BJP has been "indulging in a malicious propaganda" against him and his family ever since he led the Congress to victory in Assembly elections in his state last year. He has denied all the BJP's charges and said he is ready for an investigation by any agency.
He has explained that though his relatives have shares in a sister concern of the power company, there is nothing illegal in that and that he never received nor showed favours to the company. He says the company was in fact given a contract in the state by the BJP government in 2002.
In a counter allegation, Mr Singh has accused Mr Jaitley of obtaining details of his income tax returns illegally; Mr Singh notes in his eight-page letter that IT returns cannot be accessed even through a Right To Information (RTI) appeal unless the assesse permits it.
He has said the BJP has dredged up old allegations to target him. The Congress' Ajay Maken dismissed the allegations as "frivolous."
The CBI is already looking at allegations against Mr Singh in a preliminary inquiry registered last year at the request of the State Trading Corporation. The STC had sought a probe after the Income Tax department had recovered a set of documents from a Mumbai-based steel firm, which alleged a pay-off to various ministries. Some of the entries were marked against the initials of 'VBS' and 'MoS APS'.
There were four entries for alleged payments made to "VBS", totaling about Rs. 2.8 crore from October, 2009 to October, 2010. Mr Singh was Steel Minister from May 28, 2009 to January 18, 2011.
The CBI claims that Mr Singh filed revised income-tax returns for three years from 2007 to 2010. He had said he had included income from his apple orchards, official sources said.
The BJP has challenged Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to sack Virbhadra Singh, pointing the Congress leader's recent focus on pushing the anti-graft Lokpal Bill and fighting corruption.
