ED PROBE AGAINST VIRBHADRA REVEALS INCONSISTENCIES
MoU submitted to ED found to be allegedly ‘dubious’
The Enforcement Directorate money-laundering probe against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and others has found inconsistencies in the version of key co-accused and insurance agent Anand Chauhan on details related to unaccounted wealth amounting to 6.03 crore. Singh was named in a CBI first information report last September for amassing disproportionate assets worth
6.03 crore during his stint as union steel minister from 2009-12.
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate money-laundering probe against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and others has found inconsistencies in the version of key coaccused and insurance agent Anand Chauhan on details related to unaccounted wealth amounting to 6.03 crore.
Singh was named in a CBI first information report last September for amassing disproportionate assets worth `6.03 crore during his stint as union steel minister from 2009-12. He had shown the unaccounted sum as proceeds of income from an apple orchard. The unaccounted wealth was used allegedly to buy insurance policies in the name of Singh and three of his family members from Chauhan. For this, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on June 15, 2008, between Singh and Chauhan for the maintenance of the apple orchard. The MoU was submitted to the ED but it has been found to be allegedly “dubious”.
“Till now, the accused have not provided the original copy of the MoU and have only given a photo copy, with cut-marks, which raised questions about its authenticity,” said an ED source. “The ED has been told that the MoU is untraceable.”
The ED’s case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was registered in November on the basis of the CBI disproportionate assets case. The ED probe has begun to look into how the alleged money was laundered by the accused.
According to the ED source, a 5 stamp paper used with the MoU was allegedly suspicious as well.
“The ED collected evidence, including details from the original stamp vendor’s register, according to which the stamp paper used in the MoU had been sold to another person, Laik Ram,” said the source. Asked about the stamp paper-related inconsistency, Chauhan could not give a satisfactory reply.
The ED probe found that Chauhan had changed his version once about the money allegedly used to buy the 19 insurance policies for Singh and his family.