SC blow to Virbhadra as FIR by CBI on graft charges stays

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 25

In a major setback to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh ahead of the Assembly elections, the Supreme Court has dismissed his plea to quash a disproportionate assets case registered by the CBI against him and his wife.

In an order passed after an in-chamber hearing on October 23, Justice Deepak Gupta dismissed Singh’s petition after his counsel failed to “cure” the “defects” pointed out by the SC’s Registry.

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For a petition to be taken up for hearing, it’s necessary for the petitioner to “cure” the “defects” pointed out by the court’s Registry.

Virbhadra had moved the SC in April last against a Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea to quash the disproportionate assets case registered by the CBI.

Singh had termed the action against him “a well-planned conspiracy to damage his public image in the run-up to the elections”. He had wondered as to how the CBI could register a case without the state’s consent — which was a pre-requisite under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. 

Justice Vipin Sanghi of the Delhi HC had dismissed Singh’s plea to quash the CBI’s FIR and vacated the October 1, 2015, order of the Himachal Pradesh HC that had restrained the probe agency from arresting, interrogating or filing a chargesheet in the case without the court’s permission.

The CBI had registered the FIR against Virbhadra Singh (and his wife), accusing him of amassing assets worth Rs 6 crore between 2009 and 2012 during his tenure as Union steel minister in the UPA-II government.