ED sleuths question former CM Virbhadra

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday questioned Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh in connection with their probe into a money laundering case against him. The questioning started after Singh arrived at the ED office’s here at around 12pm and continued till late in the evening.

It comes a week after Singh failed to appear in front of ED investigators for the fourth time in a row . While last week’s summons gave the senior Congress leader an option to either send a representative or to appear personally, the latest summons required him to appear personally. The ED is probing allegations against Singh and his family members of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income between 2009 and 2011 when he was a Union minister in the UPA regime.

The case was registered by CBI in September 2015 under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Singh, his wife Pratibha, his associate Chunni Lal, and Life Insurance Corporation agent Anand Chauhan. CBI had last month chargesheeted Singh and others in the case following which the ED attached a farmhouse in Delhi belonging to Singh’s family.

The farmhouse, worth around ₹27 crore, was attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), ED had said the market price of the farmhouse was shown to be ₹1 crore while ₹5.47 crore was paid in cash. HTC