Delhi court orders framing of charges against Virbhadra, wife in DA case

New Delhi, December 10

A Delhi court on Monday ordered framing of charges against former HP Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for the alleged criminal misconduct and amassing disproportionate assets of over Rs 10 crore, saying he intended to cause loss to the tax authorities by presenting unaccounted money as sale proceeds of apples.

Apart from the two offences under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, Special CBI Judge Arun Bhardwaj said prima facie charges of the alleged forgery and attempt to cheat under the IPC were also made out against the Congress leader.

The court also ordered framing of charges against his wife Pratibha Singh and seven others for allegedly abetting in the offences and listed the matter for January 7 when all of them will have to inform the judge whether they plead guilty to the charges or not.

After formal framing of charges, the court commences trial in the case.

The other seven accused are LIC agent Anand Chauhan, Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia.

The court in its 105-page order said Virbhadra and Anand Chauhan “fraudulently and dishonestly” signed a memorandum of understanding by ante-dating it to give an impression that it was signed on June 15, 2008, by them.

“They knew that the MoU was not made, signed or executed by them on June 15, 2008. They prepared and signed it with the intention of causing it to be believed that this MoU was made by them on June 15, 2008.

“The investigation of the CBI has shown that this MoU was ante-dated. Therefore, they can be said to have made a false document,” the court said.

It added that since the document was made for showing unaccounted money as sale proceeds of apples, they were liable to be charged for the offence of forgery.

“Since an attempt was also made to cheat the Income Tax authorities using the false document, Virbhadra Singh is also liable to be charged under Section 511 (attempt) of the IPC read with Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC,” the court said.

The punishment for the offences of criminal misconduct and disproportionate assets under the Act range between one and seven-year jail term, forgery entails a maximum of two-year imprisonment and the offence of cheating could lead to a maximum sentence of seven years.

On the role of his wife, the court said there was “grave suspicion” that she committed the offence of abetment under the IPC.

Advocate Tarannum Cheema, representing Virbhadra Singh, had argued that no prior consent of the HP Government was taken for carrying out investigation in the state.PTI