Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.
New Delhi:
The CBI was today asked by a Delhi court to place before it the records of preliminary enquiry (PE) it had conducted in a disproportionate assets case against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others.
The court's direction came during the hearing of an application filed by 81-year-old Mr Singh in which he has accused CBI of not furnishing the complete copy of FIR registered against him.
Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar directed the agency to place records of preliminary enquiry before the court on or before December 2, the next date of hearing, when the court is likely to decide Mr Singh's plea.
In his plea, Mr Singh has said that CBI should be directed to file in court complete copy of First Information Report.
CBI had registered a PE which was converted into a regular case this September against Mr Singh and his family members for allegedly amassing wealth of Rs 6.1 crore, alleging that it was disproportionate to their known sources of income during 2009-2011 when he was serving as Union Minister of Steel in the UPA government.
CBI had lodged the FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act, naming Mr Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, LIC agent Anand Chauhan and Chunni Lal Chauhan.
The agency has claimed that during this period, Mr Singh, a six-time Chief Minister, had invested Rs 6.1 crore in life insurance policies in his and his family members' names through Mr Chauhan.
In an unprecedented action on a serving Chief Minister, CBI had on September 26 searched his official residence and 10 other places in connection with the case, the day of the marriage of his daughter.
Searches were also carried out at his official residence in Delhi, his two houses in Shimla and Rampur and a farm house in Mehrauli in South Delhi which is in the name of his son Vikramaditya Singh.