Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife were today charge-sheeted by the CBI in a special court here in a disproportionate assets case, hours after the Delhi High Court refused to quash the FIR and lifted the stay on their arrest.
The high court, which rubbished the Chief Minister's claim that the FIR is the result of any "political vendetta", paved the way for criminal proceedings which were stalled due to the October 1, 2015 order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court restraining the CBI from arresting, interrogating and filing the charge sheet against the accused.
After Justice Vipin Sanghi of the High Court passed the verdict in the morning in the case which was pending before it since November 2015, the agency swung into action and filed a charge sheet before the special court here against nine people including the 82-year-old Congress leader for alleged offences punishable under section 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) of IPC and under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The over 500-pages charge sheet filed before special CBI judge Virender Kumar Goyal, has also arrayed LIC agent Anand Chauhan, a close associate of the chief minister.
Chauhan, currently in judicial custody, was arrested by Enforcement Directorate on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the present case.
The CBI report claims that Singh had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate by 192 per cent of his total income during his tenure as a Union Minister.
The charge sheet, which will be considered by the special court tomorrow, has arrayed around 225 witnesses and 442 documents.
While clearing the deck for taking further the case, the High Court said, "There is no factual basis brought on record to claim that the registration of the FIR against Singh and his wife is actuated or legally or factually mala fide or that the registration of the FIR/ RC is a result of political vendetta."
Justice Sanghi said the Himachal Pradesh High Court order which was coming in the way of CBI to file the charge sheet was passed without hearing the necessary parties.
"It is well settled that a court should not undertake to decide an issue unless it is a live issue between the parties," the judge said and quashed the questions framed by Himachal High Court including whether the permission of the Speaker of the HP Legislative Assembly was mandatory before registration of FIR.
Justice Sanghi held that there is "no legal basis to claim that the permission of Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly was mandatory before registration of the FIR/RC in the case which pertains to the tenure of Virbhadra Singh while he was a Central Minister under the Union Government during the check period."
The high court also turned down the chief minister's claim that the CBI has no jurisdiction, saying "the accused cannot dictate to the prosecution that the case should be registered at a police station that he desires".
"The case may be registered at any one of the police stations within whose jurisdiction the same can be legally instituted," it added.
Singh had sought directions from the court for quashing the FIR registered against him and his wife under Sections 13(2) and 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 109 of IPC by the CBI on September 23, 2015 here and urged the court to summon records of the preliminary inquiry and the FIR.
Meanwhile, the Congress today ruled out removal of the chief minister and maintained that the case was file due to political vendetta.
Singh will fight it out and emerge victorious, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, adding there was "nothing to worry about" in the case.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)