ED grills Virbhadra over 37 transactions
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh — who was grilled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for over nine hours on Thursday — was asked to “explain” about 37 transactions made into five bank accounts including the one allegedly owned by his LIC agent Anand Chauhan.
Chauhan was arrested by the agency in July last year for allegedly aiding Singh by issuing LIC policies worth ₹5 crore in the name of the CM and his family.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED have accused Singh of amassing wealth worth over ₹6 crore which was disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The probe agencies also accused the 82-year-old Congress leader of investing over ₹5 crore in purchasing policies in his own and his family members’ name through Chauhan during his stint as the Union steel minister in the UPA II government.
On Thursday, Singh was summoned by ED investigators and grilled for over nine hours. Sources said that he was asked to provide details of 37 transactions made into LIC bank accounts of Chauhan, Meghraj Sharma and Kanupriya Rathore between June 25, 2009 and January 31, 2011.
Official sources in the ED said that the veteran leader cooperated with the investigators for most part of the questioning.
“The questions were mostly financial in nature. Singh has asked for some time before responding to them,” an ED official told HT.
According to documents accessed by HT, the said transactions were made into five bank accounts.
Chauhan had one LIC account each in Punjab National Bank and HDFC bank. Meghraj had one account in Punjab National Bank and another in Punjab and Sindh bank. Kanupriya Rathore had an account in Punjab National Bank.
The first transaction totalling ₹5 lakh was made on June 25, 2009 into Chauhan’s HDFC account followed by transactions in July and December.
Many more transactions took place in 2010 with 10 taking place in March alone. Another 10 transactions were made into Meghraj and Kanupriya’s accounts in March 2010.
ED officials also said that Singh was asked about his income tax returns for the year 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2011-12.