DA case: Virbhadra, wife appear before court, seek bail
NEW DELHI: Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh on Monday appeared as accused in a special court here in connection with a nearly ₹10 crore disproportionate assets case and sought bail.
Besides the 82-year-old Congress leader and his wife, the other accused, who have been chargesheeted in the case by the CBI, also appeared before the court and moved their respective bail pleas. Special judge Virender Kumar Goyal posted the matter for arguments on May 29 after the CBI said they needed some time to file a reply to the bail pleas. The chief minister, clad in a grey safari suit, came to the court amid tight security and was accompanied by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who was present during the court proceedings.
As the hearing commenced, a battery of senior advocates, who were appearing for these accused, moved the bail applications. The CBI prosecutor told the judge that they needed some time to go through the bail pleas and file a response.
After the hearing, Digvijay Singh, while talking to scribes outside the court premises, launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that he was using agencies like the CBI, ED and NIA to clamp down on the Opposition.
“Modi is trying to clamp down on the opposition using the tools of CBI, NIA and ED and putting fake cases against them. Their own leaders spent over ₹500 crore in marriage while the demonetisation drive was on and their own people are involved in terrorism,” he said. “He is framing innocents. The CBI was a caged parrot; now so is the NIA and ED. The directors are given extensions as carrots,” Digvijaya Singh said.