New Delhi, Jan 23 (UNI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday transferred the appeal filed by former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh, challenging the order of a trial court, to frame charges against them, for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets (DA) worth over Rs 10 crore.
The couple had on January 23, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, seeking quashing of the trial court order passed on December 10, 2018, directing framing of charges against nine persons, including Singh and his wife, in the case lodged by CBI.
The trial court had said in its order that Singh intended to cause loss to tax authorities by presenting unaccounted money as sale proceeds of apples. The court also ordered framing of charges on January 29 against Virbhadra's wife and seven others, for allegedly abetting the offences.
The other accused included LIC agent Anand Chauhan, Chunni Lal Chauhan, Joginder Singh Ghalta, Prem Raj, Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, Lawan Kumar Roach and Ram Prakash Bhatia.
The court observed that Virbhadra and Anand "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.
The court further observed 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.
In this matter, the national investigating agency had registered a case against Singh and others for allegedly amassing assets worth around Rs 10 crore disproportionate to their known source of income, when he was the Union Minister.
In its charge sheet, CBI claimed 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 has been filed against nine persons for alleged offences punishable under Sections 109 (abetment) and 465 (punishment for forgery) under Indian Penal Code and under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Supreme Court has transferred the matter from the Himachal Pradesh High Court to the Delhi High Court, which had asked the CBI not to arrest Singh and directed him to join the probe.
Delhi High Court Justice Mukta Gupta, after seeing the appeal, on Thurs said the same be transferred to another bench of High Court, for hearing on Friday.
UNI XC RJ 1600