Shimla, May 30: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha on Monday got bail from a CBI court here in a disproportionate assets case. Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal accepted their plea that there was no need to take them into custody as the CBI had already questioned them and filed the chargesheet which the court had taken congnizance of and named them as accused.
The judge, however, directed them to surrender their passports and debarred them from leaving the country without the court’s permission. The trial court also asked them and the other six accused in the case to desist from influencing the witnesses or tampering with the evidence. The court rejected CBI’s submissions against grant of bail to Singh and other accused.“
In view of the submissions of the learned counsel for the accused and the learned special public prosecutor and considering the nature and gravity of the offences,” the accused persons were being granted bail on their furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each along with a surety of Rs 1 lakh each, the judge said in the 20-page order.
Talking to reporters outside the court, Singh said the case was nothing but a “political vendetta. It will be a long battle and I will fight and win the case. ”The 83-year-old Congress veteran had sought bail also on the grounds of his age and various ailments, besides the fact that the CBI had never sought his arrest during the investigations.
He had also pleaded that under the laws laid down by the Supreme Court no accused should be arrested after the filing of the chargesheet if the prosecution had not done so during the investigation. In the chargesheet, the CBI has charged Singh with amassing unaccounted wealth to the extent of about Rs 10 crore when he was a Central minister during the check period, from May 28, 2009 to June 26, 2012. He had invested the money in LIC policies in his name, that of his wife and other family members.
On May 8, the trial court had issued the summons to the eight accused after taking cognizance of the agency’s chargesheet and directed them to appear before it on May 22. The six other accused in the case are Universal Apple Associate owner Chunni Lal Chauhan, stamp paper vendor Joginder Singh Ghalta, Tarani Infrastructure Managing Director Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach, Prem Raj and Ram Prakash Bhatia. All the eight accused are facing charges of corruption, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Singh has disputed the charge contending that he purchased the policies out of the income from his apple orchard, Srikhand Orchard, in Damrali village in Shimla district. He entered into a memorandum of understanding with LIC agent Anand Chauhan on June 15, 2008 for management of his orchard. Earlier, the Delhi High Court had allowed the CBI to file the chargesheet by rejecting the objections raised by Singh and the Himachal government.The CBI has registered a fresh case against Singh after closing the first preliminary enquiry for lack of evidence.
Source Tribune India
