Virbhadra moves SC against dismissal of plea in Delhi HC
HP CM has challenged registration of the case saying that the CBI could not have taken up the investigation without the state’s consent
NEWDELHI/SHIMLA:Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi high court order refusing to quash a criminal case registered against him and his wife by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which accused him of acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Singh has alleged that the case was an outcome of political vendetta and registered at the behest of the Centre. He has challenged the registration of the case on technical grounds. According to him, the CBI could not have taken up the investigation without the state’s consent—a prerequisite under the law governing the central investigating agency.
He maintained that the CBI overstepped its jurisdiction as the cause of action did not arise in the territory of Delhi.
“On the same set of facts, the CBI has already conducted a preliminary inquiry and closed the case,” Singh contended, questioning the re-opening of the case.
Justice Vipin Sanghi had on Friday dismissed Singh’s plea to quash the CBI’s FIR and vacated the October 1, 2015 order of the Himachal Pradesh high court that had put the probe on hold.
The CBI has accused the CM of amassing assets worth ₹6 crore between 2009 and 2012 during his tenure as Union steel minister. The agency’s stand is that it has the jurisdiction to register and probe the case in Delhi as the cause of action arose when he was the Union minister during the UPA government.
Singh had earlier filed a petition before the Himachal Pradesh HC, which in an interim order on October 1, 2015 restrained the CBI from arresting, interrogating or filing a charge sheet against him.
In November 2015 the top court transferred Singh’s petition from HP to Delhi HC where the CBI pressed for vacating the stay order on the ground it hampered its investigation.
Five days ago, the Delhi high court refused to quash the disproportionate case against Virbhadra Singh and Central Bureau of Investigation simultaneously filed a charge sheet in against him and nine others.
It also vacated Himachal Pradesh HC’s interim order restraining CBI from arresting, interrogating or filing a charge sheet in the case without the court’s permission.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal as well as it's central leaders mounted pressure on Virbhadra Singh to quit office on moral grounds.
More trouble brewed for chief minister Virbhadra Singh just two days ago enforcement directorate attached his farmhouse in New Delhi in a money laundering case.
The farmhouse, worth around ₹27 crore, was attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Virbhadra in hard hitting statement on Wednesday had blamed enforcement directorate of acting with bias against him and inflating the value of his farm house.