Charges framed against Virbhadra Singh, trial to begin on April 3
February 22, 2019  21:29
image
A Delhi court on Friday framed charges of criminal misconduct and amassing disproportionate assets of over Rs 10 crore against former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, paving the way for commencement of much-awaited trial in the case.

The veteran Congress leader, to whom the charges were read out by Special Central Bureau of Investigaiton judge Arun Bhardwaj, claimed innocence and said that instead of pleading guilty he will face trial in the assets case.

The court fixed April 3, 4 and 5 for the CBI to start recording statements of the witnesses in the case.

"Today, the case is listed for recording plea of the accused no 1, Virbhadra Singh and accused no 3 Anand Chauhan to the charge framed against them pursuant to order passed on December 10, 2018," the court said.

Charges have been read and explained to the accused to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial, it said.During the hearing, Virbhadra and his wife Pratibha Singh, who were present in the court, moved a plea seeking permanent exemption from appearing in the court during the trial of the case.

The court asked CBI to file its reply on their plea before the next date of hearing.In a separate case filed by the Enforcement Directorate, the agency filed third supplementary charge sheet against Virbhadra in a money laundering case.

The court said it would take up the matter on March 18.

ED's supplementary charge sheet was filed through advocates Nitesh Rana and N K Matta.

The court had on December 10 last year ordered framing of charges against Singh for 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, the court had said that prima facie charges of alleged forgery and attempt to cheat under the Indian Penal Code were also made out against the 82-year-old Congress leader and former Union minister.

The court had also ordered framing of charges against Pratibha Singh, and seven others for allegedly abetting in the offences.

After the 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 that Virbhadra Singh and Anand Chauhan 'fraudulently and dishonestly' signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by ante-dating it to give an impression that it was signed on June 15, 2008 by them.   -- PTI
« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES