statesman news service
New Delhi, 31 December
The Central Bureau of Investigation might seek certain clarifications from the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, and some of his family members in connection with the allegations levelled by the BJP leader, Mr Arun Jaitley.
According to sources in the agency, the CBI has received a copy of the letter Mr Jaitley wrote to the Prime Minister. The agency is examining the allegations levelled against Mr Virbhadra Singh and might request the CM to join  investigations.
In the letter to the PM, a copy of which was marked to the CBI, Mr Jaitley claimed that Mr Singh had received payoffs of over Rs 2 crore from a private steel company when he was Union Minister for Steel.
Mr Singh, who has denied all charges, arrived in New Delhi today to present his version to the Congress high command. He has said that he was ready for a probe by any agency.
The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry last year on the request of the State Trading Corporation to probe into the financial irregularities in the Mumbai-based steel company which had allegedly paid off various ministries. The STC had sought a probe as Income Tax department had recovered a set of documents from a Mumbai-based steel firm which alleged payoffs to various ministries and some of the entries were marked against initials of ‘VBS’ and ‘MoS APS’.
The CBI’s probe was earlier to identify government officials who were allegedly shown as beneficiaries in the seized documents.
Although Mr Singh had denied all charges, there were four entries made to the listed beneficiary ~ ‘VBS’ ~ which totalled up to Rs 2.8 crore from October 2009 to October 2010. Mr Virbhadra Singh was Steel Minister from 28 May 2009 to 18 January 2011.
The agency has taken note of all the points made by Mr Jaitley and would probe into the allegations in the existing PE, sources said. The CBI has also received the revised Income Tax returns of Mr Singh filed during 2007 to 2010.
The Himachal chief minister had filed I-T returns for three years ~ 2007-08 to 2009-10 ~ of Rs 40 lakh each every year. This was later revised by him to Rs 1.5 crore per annum for all the financial years stating that he had included his income from his apple orchards.
The CBI has recorded the statement of insurance agent Anand Chouhan, who is said to have deposited Rs 5 crore in the bank account of Mr Singh and his family towards buying life insurance policies. The LIC agent has claimed that he was instructed to sell the apple orchards and deposit the money in the account of Mr Singh and his family members. The statement is being further cross-checked before taking a decision on whether to summon Mr Singh.
In his letter, Mr Jaitley has claimed Mr Singh’s involvement in various scams in 2002 and during his tenure as Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, and sought to know what action the PM, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi would take against Virbhadra.