Court orders framing of charges against ex-HP CM Virbhadra and wife in DA case

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday ordered framing of charges against former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra 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, Special

CBI Judge Arun Bhardwaj said that prima facie charges of alleged forgery and attempt to cheat under the IPC were also made out against the 82-year-old Congress leader and former Union minister.

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 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.

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

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